When she looked in, she saw that there was water, but that it was so far from the top that she could not reach it, though she stretched her neck as far as she could. She stopped, and thought to herself, “How shall I get that water? I am perishing with thirst, and there must be some way for me to get some of it.” Some pebbles were lying on the ground; and, picking them up in her beak, she dropped them one by one into the pitcher. They sank to the bottom; and at last the water was pushed up by them to the top, so that the Crow could easily drink it. “Where there’s a will, there’s a way,” said the Crow. THE ANT AND THE DOVE AN Ant, walking by the river one day, said to himself, “How nice and cool this water looks! I must drink some of it.” But as he began to drink, his foot slipped, and he fell in. “Oh, somebody please help me, or I shall drown!” cried he. A Dove, sitting in a tree that overhung the river, heard him, and threw him a leaf. “Climb up on that leaf,” said she, “and you will float ashore.” The Ant climbed up onto the leaf, which the wind blew to the shore, and he stepped upon dry land again. “Good-by, kind Dove,” said he, as he ran home. “You have saved my life, and I wish I could do something for you.” “Good-by,” said the Dove; “be careful not to fall in again.” A few days after this, when the Dove was busy building her nest, the Ant saw a man just raising his gun to shoot her. He ran quickly, and bit the man’s leg so hard that he cried “Oh! oh!” and dropped his gun. This startled the Dove, and she flew away. The man picked up his gun, and walked on. When he was gone, the Dove came back to her nest. “Thank you, my little friend,” she said. “You have saved my life.” And the little Ant was overjoyed to think he had been able to do for the Dove what the Dove had so lately done for him. THE OX AND THE FROG AN Ox, drinking at a pool, chanced to set his foot on a young Frog, and crushed him to death. His brothers and sisters, who were playing near, ran at once to tell their mother what had happened. “Oh, Mother,” they cried, “a very huge beast, with four great feet, came to the pool, and crushed our brother to death in an instant, with his hard, cloven heel.” The old Frog was very vain. She was rather large, as Frogs go, and gave herself airs on account of it. “Was the cruel beast so very large?” she said. “How big?” “Oh!” said the young Frogs. “It was a terrible monster!” “Was it as big as this?” she said, blowing and puffing herself out. “Oh, much bigger,” replied the young Frogs. “As big as this, then?” she added, puffing and blowing with all her might. “A great deal bigger,” they answered. “Well, was it _so_ big?” “Oh, Mother!” cried the Frogs; “pray do not try to be so big. If you were to puff till you burst, you could not make yourself half so big as the creature we tell you of.”