"'I say, dove,' said the other bird, 'what's up, that you are cooing in such a dreary, disconsolate way?'
"The dove thereupon related all that had happened.
"'Oh, you simpleton! oh, you fool!' quoth the other bird, 'how could you have been so silly as to believe the sly old fox? You ought to have known that foxes cannot climb trees; therefore, when he comes to-morrow, ordering you to throw him down a couple of your little ones, just you tell him to come up himself and get them.'
"The day after, when the fox came for his meal, the dove simply answered:
"'Don't you wish you may get it!'
"And the dove laughed in her sleeve to see the fox look so sheepish.
"'Who told you that?' said Reynard; 'you never thought of it yourself, you are too stupid.'
"'No,' quoth the dove, 'I did not. The bird that has built her nest by the sedges near the river told it me.'
"'So,' said the fox; and he turned round and went off to the bird that had built her nest by the river sedges, without even saying ta-ta to the dove. He soon found her out.
"'I say, bird, what made you build your nest in such a breezy spot?' said the fox, with a twinkling eye.