“There is nothing in the world higher than my daughter,” called out the king. “The frog has made the highest jump that can be made. Only one who has a good mind could have done anything so clever as that.” And so the leaping frog won the princess.
“I jumped the highest,” said the flea, “in spite of what the king said, but the decision does not matter to me. The princess may have that heavy, stiff-legged, ugly creature if he’s to her taste. Dullness and heaviness win in this stupid world. I’m too light and airy.” So the flea went into foreign lands.
The grasshopper sat down upon a green bank and thought about the world and its ways. “Yes,” he said to himself, “dullness and heaviness do win in this stupid world. People care most about fine looks nowadays.” Then he began to sing in the grasshopper way; and from his song we have taken this little story.
THE CLEVER TURTLE
A turtle lay upon a large rock sunning himself. His eyes were turned toward the palace of the king which overlooked the beautiful river. He could hear the merry voices of the little princes playing in the royal courtyard.
“What happy times they have!” thought the turtle. “I have heard that there is a lovely little lake in the princes’ playground, where they have fine fun, swimming and sailing tiny boats. How dull it is living out here on the rocks! I’m sure I should be happier if I lived in a royal courtyard.”
At that moment the turtle was startled by the voices of two men who were carrying fishing nets and large buckets to the river. He slipped under the rock and lay very still and listened.
“You see,” said one of the men, “we are to put the fishes into the courtyard lake and surprise the young princes. His majesty, the king, heard them wish that fishes swam in their lake, and he decided to surprise them.”