To
BASIL AND MARGARET
My Dear Children,
A young monkey named Genius picked a green walnut, and bit, through a bitter rind, down into a hard shell. He then threw the walnut away, saying: "How stupid people are! They told me walnuts are good to eat."
His grandmother, whose name was Wisdom, picked up the walnut peeled off the rind with her fingers, cracked the shell, and shared the kernel with her grandson, saying: "Those get on best in life who do not trust to first impressions."
In some old books the story is told differently; the grand-mother is called Mrs Cunning-Greed, and she eats all the kernel herself. Fables about the Cunning-Greed family are written to make children laugh. It is good for you to laugh; it makes you grow strong, and gives you the habit of understanding jokes and not being made miserable by them. But take care not to believe such fables; because, if you believe them, they give you bad dreams.
January 1909.
