[Illustration: THE DOG AND THE WOLF.]
A lean, hungry, half-starved Wolf, happened, one moonshiny night, to
meet with a jolly, plump, well-fed mastiff; and, after the first
compliments were passed, says the Wolf--'You look extremely well; I
protest, I think, I never saw a more graceful comely person. But how
comes it about, I beseech you, that you should live so much better than
I? I may say, without vanity, that I venture fifty times more than you
do; and yet I am almost ready to perish with hunger.'--The Dog answered
very bluntly--'Why you may live as well, if you will do the same for it
that I do.'--'Indeed! What is that?' says he.--'Why,' says the Dog,
'only to guard the house a nights, and keep it from thieves.'--'With
all my heart,' replies the Wolf, 'for at present I have but a sorry time
of it; and, I think, to change my hard lodging in the woods, where I
endure rain, frost, and snow, for a warm roof over my head, and a belly
full of good victuals, will be no bad bargain.'--'True,' says the Dog;
'therefore you have nothing more to do but to follow me.' Now, as they
were jogging on together, the Wolf spied a crease in the Dog's neck,
and, having a strange curiosity, could not forbear asking him what it
meant.--'Pugh! nothing,' says the Dog. 'Nay, but pray,'--says the Wolf.
'Why,' says the Dog, 'if you must know, I am tied up in the day-time,
because I am a little fierce, for fear I should bite people, and am only
let loose a nights. But this is done with design to make me sleep a
days, more than any thing else, and that I may watch the better in the
night-time; for, as soon as ever the twilight appears, out I am turned,
and may go where I please. Then my master brings me plates of bones from
the table with his own hands, and whatever scraps are left by any of the
family, all fall to my share; for you must know I am a favourite with
every body. So you see how you are to live.--Come, come along; what is
the matter with you?'--'No,' replied the Wolf, 'I beg your pardon; keep
your happiness all to yourself. Liberty is the word with me; and I would
not be a king upon the terms you mention.'