In less than a minute all the gnats were flying about the old horse. He laid down his ears, and shook his head, and then he lifted up one of his feet and struck his iron hoof on the ground. He did not like the gnats to be about his eyes and ears, any more than I did to have one on my nose. At last the old horse walked away; some of the gnats went with him, and the rest began their game again under the tree.
Hark! do you not hear a loud buzz? It is the large blue fly there that makes it. Now he is on the beam above me, with his head down and his heels up; now he is flying about the room. I cannot follow him with my eyes, he flies so fast. There! what a bang he gave the window pane with his head! Flies are very swift on the wing; they fly faster than a horse can gallop.
An odd tale has been told, which I will tell you. A bear and a man once acted kindly one to the other. The man fell asleep on the ground, but he had not much rest, for a fly would settle on his face.
“O,” thought the bear, “I will do a kind deed for my friend. I will kill the fly that teases him.” With this, he lifted up his great, heavy paw; but, alas! in killing the fly he tore with his claws the face of the man also.
Let us learn a lesson from this tale. Let us take care that every kind act we do is done in a proper manner, or we may do very little good, or do a great deal of harm.
Then let us not be cruel to any of the creatures God has made, whether they fly in the air, swim in the water, or creep and run on the ground. We ought not to ill use any thing, not even the poor snail that goes along the ground so slowly, with his house on his back,—
“For God above, the Lord of all,
Made me to walk, and it to crawl.”
