"I'm eternally boiled!" said he, "if ever I experienced so many fish in all my life. It is discouraging. It inspires me with mint sauce and green peas."
He probably meant amazement and fear; under the influence of powerful emotions even lambs will talk "shop."
"Well, good bye," said his tormentor, taking a final nip at the animal's muzzle; "I should like to amuse you some more; but I have other fish to fry."
This tale teaches a good quantity of lessons; but it does not teach why this fish should have persecuted this lamb.
LXXXVII.
A mole, in pursuing certain geological researches, came upon the buried carcase of a mule, and was about to tunnel him.
"Slow down, my good friend," said the deceased. "Push your mining operations in a less sacrilegious direction. Respect the dead, as you hope for death!"
"You have that about you," said the gnome, "that must make your grave respected in a certain sense, for at least such a period as your immortal part may require for perfect exhalation. The immunity I accord is not conceded to your sanctity, but extorted by your scent. The sepulchres of moles only are sacred."
To moles, the body of a lifeless mule
A dead mule's carcase is, and nothing more.