The trout is a fine fish. Once a big trout lived in a pool close by a spring. He used to stay under the bank with only his head showing. His wide-open eyes shone like jewels. I tried to catch him. I would creep up to the edge of the pool where I could see his bright eyes looking up.
I caught a grasshopper and threw it over to him. Then there was a splash in the water and the grasshopper was gone. I did this two or three times. Each time I saw the rush and splash and saw the bait had been taken.
So I put the same bait on my hook and threw it over into the water. But all was silent. The fish was an old one and had grown very wise. I did this day after day with the same luck. The trout knew there was a hook hidden in the bait.
DOCTOR GOLDSMITH’S MEDICINE
This is a story of good medicine. Most medicine is bad to take, but this was so good that the sick man wished for more.
One day a poor woman went to Doctor Goldsmith and asked him to go to see her sick husband. “He is very sick,” she said, “and I can not get him to eat anything.”
So Doctor Goldsmith went to see him. The doctor saw at once that the reason why the man could not eat was because he was so poor that he had not been able to buy good food.
Then he said to the woman, “Come to my house this evening and I will give you some medicine for your husband.”
The woman went in the evening and the doctor gave her a small paper box tied up tight. “It is very heavy,” she said. “May I see what it looks like?” “No,” said the doctor, “wait until you get home.” When she got home, and she and her husband opened the box so that he could take the first dose of medicine,—what do you think they saw? The box was filled with silver money. This was the good doctor’s medicine.