To his surprise Mercury appeared and asked him what was the matter. Having heard the story of the man’s misfortune, he dived to the bottom of the river, and bringing up a golden ax, inquired if that was the one he had lost. On his saying that it was not his, Mercury dived a second time, and returning with a silver ax in his hand, again demanded of the Woodman if it was his. This also the Woodman refused, saying that it was none of his. Mercury disappeared a third time and brought up the ax that the man had lost. This the poor man took with joy and thankfulness. So pleased was Mercury with the honesty of the man, that he gave him the other two axes in addition to his own. The Woodman, on his return home, related to his companions all that had happened. One of them resolved to see if he could secure the same good fortune to himself. He ran to the river and threw his ax in, then sat down upon the bank to lament his sad fate. Mercury appeared as before and demanded to know the cause of his grief. After hearing the man’s account, he dived and brought up a golden ax and asked the man if that was his. Transported at the sight of the precious metal, the fellow eagerly answered that it was, and greedily attempted to snatch it. The god, detecting his falsehood and greed, not only declined to give him the golden ax but refused to recover for him his own. THE RAT AND THE ELEPHANT A RAT, traveling on the highway, met a huge Elephant, bearing his royal master and the master’s favorite dog, cat, parrot, and monkey. Behind them came a retinue of servants and many courtiers. An admiring crowd followed the great beast and his attendants, so that the entire road was filled. “How foolish you are,” said the Rat to the people, “to make such a fuss at seeing an elephant. Is it his great bulk that you so much admire? Mere size is nothing. At most it can only frighten little girls and boys, and I can do that as well. I am a beast as well as he. I have as many legs, and ears, and eyes. If you will take the trouble to compare us, you will see that I have finer parts. What right, then, has he to take up all the highway, which belongs to me as well as to him?” At this moment, the Cat from her high place spied the Rat. She jumped to the ground and soon convinced him that he was not an Elephant. THE HUSBANDMAN AND THE STORK A HUSBANDMAN pitched a net in his fields, to take the cranes and wild geese that came daily to feed upon the newly sown corn. In this net he captured several cranes and geese, and among them, on one occasion, was a Stork. The cranes and geese accepted their lot as one of the chances to which such lives as theirs were subject; but the Stork was in very sad case and pleaded hard for his life.