Page:Three hundred Aesop's fables (Townshend).djvu/55

 Rh THE BEAR AND THE TWO TRAVELLERS.

men were travelling together, when a Bear suddenly met them on their path. One of them climbed up quickly into a tree, and concealed himself in the branches. The other, seeing that he must be attacked, fell flat on the ground, and when the Bear came up and felt him with his snout, and smelt him all over, he held his breath, and feigned the appearance of death as much as he could. The Bear soon left him, for it is said he will not touch a dead body. When he was quite gone the other traveller descended from the tree, and accosting his friend, jocularly inquired "what it was the Bear had whispered in his ear?" He replied, "He gave me this advice: Never travel with a friend who deserts you at the approach of danger."

Misfortune tests the sincerity of friends.

THE FOX WHO HAD LOST HIS TAIL.

caught in a trap, escaped with the loss of his "brush." Henceforth feeling his life a burden from the shame and ridicule to which he was exposed, he schemed to bring all the other Foxes into a like condition with himself, that in the common loss he might the better conceal his own deprivation. He assembled a good many Foxes, and publicly advised them to cut off their tails, saying "that they would not only look much better without them, but that they would get rid of the weight of the brush, which was a very great inconvenience." One of them interrupting him said, "If you had not yourself lost your tail, my friend, you would not thus counsel us."