"
"Now the gods be lenient to folly!" exclaimed the indignant merchant.
"Man, Man! where in the realm of idiocy did you get your knowledge of
business?"
"I ran a pay-on-publication journal for ten years," said the fool with
asperity.
But the merchant had vanished in a cloud of oaths and dust.
[Illustration: The Merchant and the Fool.]
The Wolf and the Sheep.
A wolf that had been left for dead by the dogs lay not far from a running
brook. He felt that one good drink might save his life. Just then a sheep
passed near.
"Pray, sister," said he very gently, but with a sinister twinkle of his eye
teeth, "bring me some water from yon stream."
"Certainly," said the sheep, and she brought him a glass in which she had
poured a few knock-out drops. As she sat on his corpse a little later she
moralized in this manner: "Some clever people are wicked, but all wicked
people are not clever by a d----d sight."
[Illustration: The Wolf and the Sheep.]
The Ambitious Hippopotamus.
A hippopotamus who had dwelt contentedly for years on the banks of a reedy
stream, looked up one day and saw an eagle.
She became immediately fired with a desire to fly. Having lived a staid and
respectable life that could not but find favor in the eyes of the gods, she
raised her voice in prayer.
Jove smiled a little, but granted her request.
On the instant a pair of broad, powerful wings were affixed to her
shoulders.
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