Page:Three hundred Aesop's fables (Townshend).djvu/76

70  came with the rest, and presented, with all a mother's tenderness, a flat-nosed, hairless, ill-featured young Monkey as a candidate for the promised reward. A general laugh saluted her on the presentation of her son. She resolutely said, "I know not whether Jupiter will allot the prize to my son; but this I do know, that he is, at least in the eyes of me, his mother, the dearest, handsomest, and most beautiful of all."

Pigeons, terrified by the appearance of a Kite, called upon the Hawk to defend them. He at once consented. When they had admitted him into the cote, they found that he made more havoc, and slew a larger number of them in one day, than the Kite could pounce upon in a whole year.

Avoid a remedy that is worse than the disease.

Dolphins and Whales waged a fierce warfare with each other. When the battle was at its height, a Sprat lifted its head out of the waves, and said that he would reconcile their differences, if they would accept him as an umpire. One of the Dolphins replied, "We would far rather be destroyed in our battle with each other, than admit any interference from you in our affairs."

A, returning from abroad, and ever fond of dwelling with men, built herself a nest in the wall of a Court of Justice, and there hatched seven young birds.