“Your advice may be good, but before I reply, pray turn yourself around.”

Poor Reynard saw that he was found out.  He dared not refuse to do as he was told, so he turned about.

What a shout the foxes gave!  Poor bobtail could not say a word.  The foxes seized the turkeys, ducks, and chickens, and ran off home with their long tails behind them, and poor Reynard was never again seen by any of them.

THE BLACKBIRD AND THE DOVE

One day a blackbird and a dove called upon a peacock.

The peacock received both of them very kindly in his arbor.

“I have long wished to meet you,” said the blackbird.  “Many have told me of your beauty and of your grace.  I find that they did not tell me half.”  He stroked the peacock’s coat lovingly as he praised him.

The dove was silent.

At last they bade the peacock good-by, the blackbird making many low bows.

As they started home, the blackbird said, “I hope I may never meet that stupid peacock again.  I can not bear him.  Did you notice his feet?  I felt like laughing every time I looked at them.  His voice makes me shudder.  What can anyone see to praise in that bird?”

“I did not notice his feet nor his voice,” said the dove.  “He has a noble form and his dress is very beautiful.  The rainbow and the flowers are not more beautiful.”

The blackbird turned away in shame.  He wished to hear fault found with the peacock, but the dove gave only the highest praise.

THE GREEDY DOG

“What a good time I shall have eating this meat when I get home!” said a dog as it started to cross a stream of water.

He stopped suddenly and looked down into the water.  There was his shadow.  “That dog has a larger piece of meat than I,” he said.  “I want that piece of meat and I will have it!”

He growled, but the dog in the water did not move nor did he drop his piece of meat.

He snapped at the dog in the water.  He was soon sorry for that, for the meat slipped from his mouth and sank to the bottom of the stream, and the dog in the water lost his meat at the same time.

THE GOOSE THAT LAID GOLD EGGS

One day a farmer bought a goose and took it home.

The next day the goose laid an egg of solid gold.

“That is a wonderful goose,” said the farmer, and he took the egg to a jeweler to find out its value.

“It is pure gold,” said the jeweler, and he paid the farmer a big price for it.

Each day the goose laid a gold egg.  The farmer had a dozen.

“I shall soon be a rich man,” he said, “but I do wish the goose would lay more than one egg a day.”

After the goose had laid many eggs, the farmer said, “That goose has many more gold eggs for me.  I will not wait for one a day.  I will kill the goose, open it, and get all the eggs at once.”