THE HAWK AND THE CHICKEN.
A HAWK, as it soared on high, seeing a young chicken in the field below, rapidly descended, and seized it in his talons.
“Alas!” said the chicken, “I have no power to struggle, or any hope of saving myself by resisting you in any way. But I pray you listen to me. I am yet young, hardly grown, and am just beginning to enjoy roaming through the fields by myself. Do not cut off my days. I beg you out of pity to spare my life.”
“What you say may be all true,” said the hawk. “I don’t pretend to know whether it is, or is not; all I do know is that I am hungry, and that you are the only food provided for me. I can’t go into any reasonings behind that.”