[Illustration: THE WOLF, THE LAMB, AND THE GOAT.]
A Wolf meeting a Lamb, one day, in company with a Goat--'Child,' says
he, 'you are mistaken; this is none of your mother; she is yonder;'
pointing to a flock of sheep at a distance.--'It may be so,' says the
Lamb; 'the person that happened to conceive me, and afterwards bore me a
few months in her belly, because she could not help it, and then dropped
me, she did not care where, and left me to the wide world, is, I
suppose, what you call my mother; but I look upon this charitable Goat
as such, that took compassion on me in my poor, helpless, destitute
condition, and gave me suck; sparing it out of the mouths of her own
kids, rather than I should want it.'--'But sure,' says he, 'you have a
greater regard for her that gave you life, than for any body
else.'--'She gave me life! I deny that. She that could not so much as
tell whether I should be black or white, had a great hand in giving me
life, to be sure! But, supposing it were so, I am mightily obliged to
her, truly, for contriving to let me be of the male-kind, so that I go
every day in danger of the butcher. What reason then have I to have a
greater regard for one to whom I am so little indebted for any part of
my being, than for those from whom I have received all the benevolence
and kindness which have hitherto supported me in life?'