"Pray, honest friend," said a citizen, "is that ass your own?" "Yes," said the old man. "Oh, one would not have thought so," said the other, "by the way you load him. Why, you two fellows are better able to carry the poor beast than he you." So they tied the legs of the ass together, and by the aid of a pole endeavored to carry him on their shoulders over a bridge. The sight brought the people in crowds to laugh at it; till the ass broke the cords that held him and fell into the river. Upon this, the old man, vexed and ashamed, made his way home. _In trying to please everybody one is quite likely to please nobody._ THE TORTOISE AND THE EAGLE A Tortoise, lazily basking in the sun, complained to the sea-birds of her hard fate, that no one would teach her to fly. An Eagle hovering near, heard her lamentation, and demanded what reward she would give him, if he would take her aloft, and float her in the air. "I will give you," she said, "all the riches of the Red Sea." "I will teach you to fly then," said the Eagle; and taking her up in his talons, he carried her almost to the clouds,--when suddenly letting her go, she fell on a lofty mountain, and dashed her shell to pieces. The Tortoise exclaimed in the moment of death: "I have deserved my present fate; for what had I to do with wings and clouds, who can with difficulty move about on the earth?" _If men had all they wished, they would be often ruined._ THE PEACOCK AND JUNO The Peacock made complaint to Juno that, while the small nightingale pleased every ear with his song, he no sooner opened his mouth than he became a laughing-stock of all who heard him. The Goddess, to console him, said, "But you far excel in beauty and in size. The splendor of the emerald shines in your neck, and you unfold a tail gorgeous with painted plumage." "But for what purpose have I," said the bird, "this dumb beauty so long as I am surpassed in song?" "The lot of each," replied Juno, "has been assigned by the will of the Fates--to thee, beauty; to the eagle, strength; to the nightingale, song; to the raven, favorable, and to the crow, unfavorable auguries. These are all contented with the endowments allotted to them." _Contentment is happiness._ THE LION, THE FOX, AND THE ASS