Page:La Fontaine - The Original Fables Of, 1913.djvu/64

 XVII

THE DOG WHO CARRIED HIS MASTER'S DINNER

(, 7)

hands are no more proof against gold than our eyes are proof against beauty. There are but few who guard their treasures with care enough.

A certain dog who had been taught to carry to his master the mid-day meal was one day trotting along  with the savoury burden slung around his neck. He was tempted to take a taste himself; but knew that it  would be wrong to do so, and being a temperate, self-  governed dog he refrained. We of the human race allow ourselves to be tempted by covetable things often  enough; but, strange as it is, there seems to be more  difficulty in teaching mankind to resist temptation than there is in teaching dogs to do so.

On this particular day the dog was met by a mastiff who at once wanted the dinner, but did not find it so  easy to capture as he thought; for our dog put it down  and stood guard over it. There was a mighty tussle. Soon others arrived; curs that were used to knocks and kicks while picking up a living in the streets. Seeing that he should be badly over-matched, and that his master's dinner was in danger of being devoured by