The Citizen and the Snakes A Public-Spirited Citizen who had failed miserably in trying to secure a National political convention for his city suffered acutely from dejection. While in that frame of mind he leaned thoughtlessly against a druggist's show-window, wherein were one hundred and fifty kinds of assorted snakes. The glass breaking, the reptiles all escaped into the street. "When you can't do what you wish," said the Public-spirited Citizen, "it is worth while to do what you can." Fortune and the Fabulist A Writer of Fables was passing through a lonely forest when he met a Fortune. Greatly alarmed, he tried to climb a tree, but the Fortune pulled him down and bestowed itself upon him with cruel persistence. "Why did you try to run away?" said the Fortune, when his struggles had ceased and his screams were stilled. "Why do you glare at me so inhospitably?" "I don't know what you are," replied the Writer of Fables, deeply disturbed. "I am wealth; I am respectability," the Fortune explained; "I am elegant houses, a yacht, and a clean shirt every day. I am leisure, I am travel, wine, a shiny hat, and an unshiny coat. I am enough to eat." "All right," said the Writer of Fables, in a whisper; "but for goodness' sake speak lower." "Why so?" the Fortune asked, in surprise. "So as not to wake me," replied the Writer of Fables, a holy calm brooding upon his beautiful face. A Smiling Idol An Idol said to a Missionary, "My friend, why do you seek to bring me into contempt? If it had not been for me, what would you have been? Remember thy creator that thy days be long in the land." "I confess," replied the Missionary, fingering a number of ten-cent pieces which a Sunday-school in his own country had forwarded to him, "that I am a product of you, but I protest that you cannot quote Scripture with accuracy and point. Therefore will I continue to go up against you with the Sword of the Spirit." Shortly afterwards the Idol's worshippers held a great religious ceremony at the base of his pedestal, and as a part of the rites the Missionary was roasted whole. As the tongue was removed for the high priest's table, "Ah," said the Idol to himself, "that is the Sword of the Spirit--the only Sword that is less dangerous when unsheathed." And he smiled so pleasantly at his own wit that the provinces of Ghargaroo, M'gwana, and Scowow were affected with a blight. Philosophers Three A Bear, a Fox, and an Opossum were attacked by an inundation. "Death loves a coward," said the Bear, and went forward to fight the flood. "What a fool!" said the Fox. "I know a trick worth two of that." And he slipped into a hollow stump. "There are malevolent forces," said the Opossum, "which the wise will neither confront nor avoid. The thing is to know the nature of your antagonist." So saying the Opossum lay down and pretended to be dead. The Boneless King