THE YOUNG MONKEY.
LITTLE Monkey chanced to find
A walnut in its outward rind;
He snatched the prize with eager haste,
And bit it, but its bitter taste
Soon made him throw the fruit away.
Soon made him throw the fruit away.
“I've heard,” he cried, “my mother say
(But she was wrong), the fruit was good;
Preserve me from such bitter food!”
A monkey by experience taught,
The falling prize with pleasure caught;
Took off the husk and broke the shell,
The kernel peeled, and liked it well.
“Walnuts,” said he, “are good and sweet,
But must be opened ere you eat.”
And thus in life you'll always find
Labor comes first—reward behind.
THE CLEVER FOX.
O
NE summer's day on the banks of the river Tweed, in Scotland, a fox sat watching a brood of wild ducks feeding in the river. Presently a branch of a fir tree floated in their midst, which caused them to rise in the air, and after circling round for some time, they again settled down on their feeding ground. At short intervals this was repeated, the branch floating from the same direction, until the ducks took no further notice of it than allowing it to pass by. Mr. Reynard noticed this; so he got a larger branch than the others, and crouching down among the leaves, got afloat, and coming to the ducks, who took no notice of the branch, he seized two of the ducks, and then allowed himself to be floated to the other side, where, we suppose, he had a repast.
