In the depth of winter a poor Ass once prayed heartily for the spring,
that he might exchange a cold lodging and a heartless truss of straw
for a little warm weather and a mouthful of fresh grass. In a short
time, according to his wish, the warm weather and the fresh grass came
on, but brought with them so much toil and business that he was soon as
weary of the spring as before of the winter, and he now became
impatient for the approach of summer. The summer arrived; but the
heat, the harvest work and other drudgeries and inconveniences of the
season set him as far from happiness as before, which he now flattered
himself would be found in the plenty of autumn. But here, too, he was
disappointed; for what with the carrying of apples, roots, fuel for the
winter, and other provisions, he was in autumn more fatigued than ever.
Having thus trod around the circle of the year, in a course of restless
labour, uneasiness and disappointment, and found no season, nor station
of life without its business and its trouble, he was forced at last to
acquiesce in the comfortless season of winter, where his complaint
began, convinced that in this world every situation has its
inconvenience.