THE SPARROW AND THE BEETLE.
The sparrow and the beetle met one day in the summer, when the strawberries and raspberries were ripe, and the kitchen-garden was full of flourishing vegetables.
"Good-morning. You are early abroad," said the sparrow. "Pray where may you have been?"
"I have been where I advise you to go," answered the beetle—"into the kitchen-garden, where I found all manner of delicious leaves just suited to my taste, and where I saw red, white, and black currants, fine raspberries, pease, and strawberries."
"Oh!" said the sparrow, with a severe look; "then you take me to be as great a thief as the snail and yourself. I wonder you are not ashamed of plundering the master's garden, and injuring his plants and vegetables."
"I don't do much injury," said the beetle. "Creatures must live. I take little."
"Perhaps not," returned the sparrow, "if there were only yourself to consider; but just count up your children, and your grandchildren, and your great-grandchildren, to say nothing of the innumerable beetles of your own generation. I wonder you dare to confess your pillaging propensities."
The beetle began to feel nervous; he looked right and left, but the sparrow's eye was upon him.
"I must do my duty," said the sparrow, sternly. "I am here to protect my master's plants. As it happens, I can serve him and my little ones also, who are waiting for their breakfast."
So saying, he seized upon the hapless beetle, and put an end to him. But as he was about to fly home, a cat, who had been watching from the boughs of a neighboring plum-tree, appeared in sight. The sparrow dropped his prey, and remained fascinated to the spot, his eyes fixed on the cat, who came nearer and nearer.
"Is it for you," said she, "to deprive an innocent insect of his life, and to accuse him of robbery, when I have seen you and the blackbirds eating away at the cherries in this very orchard? It is of no use to deny the fact," she added, as the sparrow feebly attempted to speak. "I know my duty, and it is to rid my master of thieves."
So saying, she pounced upon the unfortunate sparrow, and was carrying him home to her kitten, when the gamekeeper, who had his eye upon her on account of the numerous hares and rabbits that she had made away with, levelled his gun at her, and fired with such good effect that she fell dead.
Now the moral of this tale is that those who would punish the faults of others should be careful to see whether they themselves are blameless, or they may find that retribution awaits them even in the moment when they think they are going to triumph.