“What!” said the Fly, “are you foolish, too? You found fault with me for being too fond of honey; yet all your wisdom did not keep you from playing with fire.” It is sometimes easier to see the foolishness of others than to detect our own. THE BOY BATHING A LITTLE Boy once went in bathing where the water was too deep for him. When he found himself sinking, he cried out to a Man who was passing by, to come and help him. “Can’t you swim?” asked the Man. “No,” replied the Boy, “I don’t know how.” “How foolish you were, then,” said the Man, “to go into deep water! Didn’t you know better?” “Oh, good sir, please help me now, or I shall drown!” cried the Boy. “You can scold me when I am safe on shore again.” THE HARE AND THE TORTOISE A HARE one day made himself merry over the slow pace of the Tortoise, vainly boasting of his own great speed in running. The Tortoise took the laughing and boasting in good part. “Let us try a race,” she said; “I will run with you five miles for five dollars, and the Fox out yonder shall be the judge.” The Hare agreed, a course was arranged, and away they started together. True to his boasting the Hare was out of sight in a moment. The Tortoise never for a moment stopped, but jogged along with a slow, steady pace, straight to the end of the course. Full of sport, the Hare first outran the Tortoise, then fell behind. Having come midway to the goal, he began to nibble at the young herbage, and to amuse himself in many ways. After a while, the day being warm, he lay down for a nap, saying: “She is behind me now. If she should go by, I can easily enough catch up.” When the Hare awoke, the Tortoise was not in sight; and running as fast as he could, he found her comfortably dozing at their goal. Those who are very quick are apt to be too sure. Slow and steady often wins the race. THE ARAB AND HIS CAMEL AS AN Arab sat in his tent one cold night, he saw the curtain gently lifted, and the face of his Camel looking in. “What is it?” he asked kindly. “It is cold, master,” said the Camel; “suffer me, I pray thee, to hold my head within the tent.” “By all means,” replied the hospitable Arab; and the Camel stood with his head inside the tent. “Might I also warm my neck a little?” he entreated after a moment. The Arab readily consented, and the Camel’s neck was thrust within the tent. He stood, moving his head from side to side uneasily, and presently said: “It is awkward standing thus. It would take but little more room if I were to place my forelegs inside the tent.” “You may place your forelegs within the tent,” said the Arab. And now he had to move a little to make room, for the tent was small. The Camel spoke again: “I keep the tent open by standing thus, and make it cold for us both. May I not stand wholly within?” “Yes,” said the Arab, whose compassion included his beast as well as himself; “come in wholly if you wish.” But now the tent proved to be too small to hold both.