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 Rh "You out-and-out Ass," returned the Dog, "what sort of a master would grudge the pay after the work is done?"

"You are a mean-spirited beast," retorted the Ass, "to neglect your duty. Well, I at least will do my best to warn him!"

So saying, the Ass put forth his very loudest braying. The Washerman, disturbed by the noise, hurried out, and missing the thief, who had taken flight, turned in a rage upon the Ass and beat it soundly with a cudgel.

(Hitopadeça. Book II. Fable 2. Adapted from translation by Sir Edwin Arnold.)

THE CAT WHO SERVED THE LION

AR away in the North, on a mountain called Thousand-Crags, there lived a Lion named Mighty-Heart. This Lion was much troubled by a little Mouse that ran out of its hole and nibbled the Lion's mane while he lay asleep in his den. The Lion would wake up very angry when he found that the ends of his magnificent mane were all ragged and torn; but the little Mouse had run back into its hole and he could never catch it. After much thinking the Lion went down to a village where he found a Cat named Curd-Ear, which, with a great deal of trouble, and many promises, he persuaded to go back home with him. He fed the Cat like a Princess on all kinds of dainty food, while he himself slept peacefully without fear that his mane would be nibbled—for now the Mouse never dared to venture out of its hole. Whenever the Lion even heard the faint scratching of the Mouse in its hole, he always took that as a signal for giving the Cat an especially fine dinner. But one day, the unhappy Mouse, who was nearly starved, found courage to creep timidly out from his hole, when he was at once pounced upon by Curd-Ear, and killed.