Page:Chinese Fables and Folk Stories.djvu/126

122 water to drink, and keep him in the cage. To-morrow I will give him some fish and in a few days I will take him to the school teacher. Then, when I train him to sing, I will take him to the market place and sell him for much silver.'"

At the party on the evening of the next day, all the pupils told stories. At last the teacher repeated the story of the fight between the swimming and flying creatures.

"Now, I will ask you a question," he said to the pupils. "If the snipe flies in the air, can man catch him? And if the bivalve stays under the cave in the river, can man injure him?"

And the pupils all said, "No, teacher."

"Well, it was sad that the snipe and the bivalve were caught yesterday. Can you tell me why?"

"We do not know," said the scholars.

And the teacher said, "They are happy and powerful creatures when they do no harm to each other. The snipe flies in the air, the bivalve swims in his home, the sea, and each has happiness according to his kind.

"Now you see these two creatures fought together, the snipe and the bivalve, and they did not succeed by fighting. The hunter is the only one that succeeded.

"It is so with the three nations now at war. They