A Cook was preparing a dinner. The Dogs were lying at the kitchen door. The Cook killed a calf and threw the guts out into the yard. The Dogs picked them up and ate them, and said: "He is a good Cook: he cooks well." After awhile the Cook began to clean pease, turnips, and onions, and threw out the refuse. The Dogs made for it; but they turned their noses up, and said: "Our Cook has grown worse: he used to cook well, but now he is no longer any good." But the Cook paid no attention to the Dogs, and continued to fix the dinner in his own way. The family, and not the Dogs, ate the dinner, and praised it. THE HARE AND THE HARRIER A Hare once said to a Harrier: "Why do you bark when you run after us? You would catch us easier, if you ran after us in silence. With your bark you only drive us against the hunter: he hears where we are running; and he rushes out with his gun and kills us, and does not give you anything." The Harrier said: "That is not the reason why I bark. I bark because, when I scent your odour, I am angry, and happy because I am about to catch you; I do not know why, but I cannot keep from barking." THE OAK AND THE HAZELBUSH An old Oak dropped an acorn under a Hazelbush. The Hazelbush said to the Oak: "Have you not enough space under your own branches? Drop your acorns in an open space. Here I am myself crowded by my shoots, and I do not drop my nuts to the ground, but give them to men." "I have lived for two hundred years," said the Oak, "and the Oakling which will sprout from that acorn will live just as long." Then the Hazelbush flew into a rage, and said: "If so, I will choke your Oakling, and he will not live for three days." The Oak made no reply, but told his son to sprout out of that acorn. The acorn got wet and burst, and clung to the ground with his crooked rootlet, and sent up a sprout. The Hazelbush tried to choke him, and gave him no sun. But the Oakling spread upwards and grew stronger in the shade of the Hazelbush. A hundred years passed. The Hazelbush had long ago dried up, but the Oak from that acorn towered to the sky and spread his tent in all directions. THE HEN AND THE CHICKS A Hen hatched some Chicks, but did not know how to take care of them. So she said to them: "Creep back into your shells! When you are inside your shells, I will sit on you as before, and will take care of you." The Chicks did as they were ordered and tried to creep into their shells, but were unable to do so, and only crushed their wings. Then one of the Chicks said to his mother: "If we are to stay all the time in our shells, you ought never to have hatched us." THE CORN-CRAKE AND HIS MATE