Page:La Fontaine - The Original Fables Of, 1913.djvu/125

Rh respective tasks, their meals, and every other incident of their lives, and at the same time he threatened with  the whip the first one who should promote a quarrel. The kindly, almostly brotherly nature of this union was very edifying to the neighbours.

But at last the concord ceased. Some little favouritism in the bestowal of a bone, or a dish of food, caused the  outraged remainder to raise furious protests. I have heard some chroniclers attribute the discord to an affair  of love and jealousy. At any rate, whatever the origin, the altercation speedily fired both hall and kitchen, and  divided the company into partisans for this cat or for  that dog.

A new rule was made, which exasperated the cats, and their complaints deafened the whole neighbourhood. Their advocate advised returning absolutely to the old rules and decrees. The law books were searched for, but could nowhere be found. And that was no wonder, for the books which had been hidden in a corner by one  set of partisans at first had been at last devoured by  mice. This gave rise to another law-suit, which the mice lost and had to pay for.

Many old cats, cunning, subtle, and sharp, and bearing a grudge against the whole race of mice beside,  lay in wait for them, caught them, and cleared them out  of the house, much to the advantage of the master of  the establishment.

So, returning to my moral, one cannot find under heaven any animal, any being, any creature who has  not his opponent. This appears to be a law of nature. It would be time wasted to seek for a reason. God does