Page:The Complete Works of Lyof N. Tolstoi - 08 (Crowell, 1899).djvu/147

Rh The spinner said:—

"If these are not fine enough for you, then here are some others that will suit you."

And she pointed to a bare spot. The man declared that he could not see them.

The spinner replied:—

"The fact that you cannot see them proves that they are very fine; I can't see them myself."

The fool was rejoiced, and ordered some more of the same thread, and paid down the money for it.

had two sons. He said to them:—

"I am dying; divide everything equally."

When the father was dead, the sons could not make the division without quarreling.

They went to a neighbor to help them decide.

The neighbor asked them what their father had commanded them to do.

They replied:—

"He commanded us to make equal shares of everything."

Then said the neighbor:—

"Tear all the raiment in two; break all the utensils in two; cut all the live stock in two."

The brothers took the neighbor's advice, and at the end neither had anything.

went into the woods. He felled a tree, and began to cut it in pieces. He lifted the end of the tree on the stump, sat astride upon it, and began to saw. Then he drove a wedge into the cleft, and began to saw