A prodigal thoughtless young Man, who had wasted his whole patrimony in
taverns and gaming-houses, among his lewd idle companions, was taking
a melancholy walk near a brook. It was in the spring, while the hills
were yet capped with snow, but it happened to be one of those clear
sunny days which some times occur at that time of the year; and to
make appearances the more flattering, a Swallow which had been invited
forth by the warmth, flew skimming along upon the surface of the water.
The Youth observing this, concluded that the summer was now come, and
that he should have little or no occasion for clothes, so went and
pawned them, and ventured the money for one stake more, among his
sharping associates. When this too was gone, like all the rest of his
property, he took another solitary walk in the same place as before,
but the weather being severe and frosty, every thing had put on a very
different aspect; the brook was frozen over, and the poor Swallow lay
dead upon the bank. At this, the Youth, smarting under the sense of
his own misery, mistakingly reproached the Swallow as the cause of all
his misfortunes: he cried out, oh, unhappy bird, thou hast undone both
thyself and me, who was so credulous as to trust to thy appearance.