72.The Crab and the Fox
A CRAB, forsaking the seashore, chose a neighboring green meadow as its feeding ground. A fox came across him, and being very hungry ate him up. Just as he was on the point of being eaten, the crab said,
“I well deserve my fate, for what business had I on the land, when by my nature and habits I am only adapted for the sea?”
❖ Contentment with our lot is an element of happiness.
71.The Crab and His Mother
An old crab said to her son, “Why do you walk sideways like that, my son? You ought to walk straight.” The young crab replied, “Show me how, dear mother, and I’ll follow your example.” The old crab tried, but tried in vain, and then saw how foolish she had been to find fault with her child.
# Example is better than precept.
70.The Cock and the Pearl
A COCK was once strutting up and down the farmyard among the hens when suddenly he espied something shining amid the straw. “Ho! Ho!” he said, “that’s for me,” and soon rooted it out from beneath the straw. What did it turn out to be but a Pearl that by some chance had been lost in the yard? “You may be a treasure,” Master Cock said, “to men that prize you, but for me I would rather have a single barley-corn than a peck of pearls.”
“PRECIOUS THINGS ARE FOR THOSE THAT CAN PRIZE THEM.”
69.The Cock and the Jewel
A COCK, scratching for food for himself and his hens, found a precious stone and exclaimed:
“If your owner had found you, and not I, he would have taken you up and set you where you were placed before; but I have found you for no good reason. Someone like me would rather have one barleycorn than all the jewels in the world.”
❖ Any isolated country cook might also exclaim these and similar things.
