lesson-book, I should not have come to this, nor have been thus led to a disgraceful death."
THE OLD MAN AND DEATH.
An old man was employed in cutting wood in the forest, and, in carrying the faggots into the city for sale one day, being very wearied with his long journey, he sat down by the wayside, and, throwing down his load, besought "Death" to come. "Death" immediately appeared, in answer to his summons, and asked for what reason he had called him. The old man replied, "That, lifting up the load, you may place it again upon my shoulders."
THE FIR TREE AND THE BRAMBLE.
A Fir Tree said boastingly to the Bramble, "You are useful for nothing at all; while I am everywhere used for roofs and houses." The Bramble made answer: "You, poor creature, if you would only call to mind the axes and saws which are about to hew you down, you would have reason to wish that you had grown up a Bramble, not a Fir Tree."
Better poverty without care, than riches with.
THE ÆTHIOP.
The purchaser of a black servant was persuaded that the colour of his skin arose from dirt contracted through the neglect of his former masters. On bringing him home he resorted to every means of cleaning, and subjected him to incessant scrubbings. He caught a severe cold, but he never changed his colour nor complexion.
What's bred in the bone will stick to the flesh.
