Page:The cry for justice - an anthology of the literature of social protest. - (IA cryforjusticea00sinc).pdf/713

 "The lambs we have always with us," said the wool broker.

"Lambs must always be shorn," said the business man; "hand me the shears."

"We should leave him enough wool to make him a coat," said the profit sharer.

"His condition is improving," said the land owner, "for his fleece will be longer next year."

"We should prohibit cutting his flesh when we shear," said the legislator.

"But I intend," said the radical, "to stop this shearing."

The others united to throw him out; then they divided the wool.

Penguin Island

(French man of letters, born 1844. In this masterpiece of social satire the aged and half-blind Saint Maël has by mistake baptized a flock of penguins. After a consultation of the heavenly powers, the penguins are turned into human beings)

Now one autumn morning, as the blessed Maël was walking in the valley of Clange in company with a monk of Yvern called Bulloch, he saw bands of fierce-looking men loaded with stones passing along the roads. At the same time he heard in all directions cries and complaints mounting up from the valley towards the tranquil sky.

And he said to Bulloch:

"I notice with sadness, my son, that since they became men the inhabitants of this island act with less wisdom than formerly. When they were birds they only quarelled