One hot day in June, two men lay down in the shade of a plane tree, to get out of the rays of the sun, and as they lay there, they cast their eyes up to the boughs. “A plane tree bears no fruit,” said one of them. “In good sooth,” quoth his friend, “that seems but a poor tree that is of no use to man!” The plane chid them, and said, “Sirs, you must be as blind as you are base, to come here and lie in the shade I give, and yet rail at me as a thing that is of no use to man.” THE DOG WHO WAS HUNG. Once on a time two sheep met, and one of them said to her friend, “Last night our dog Spring ate a lamb, and then bit the old one to death, as well as the man of the farm.” “Nay,” quoth the friend, “if that be true, in whom can we put our trust?” Thus spread the news, and such was the crime of Spring, who now lay bound, while a group of men sat to judge his case. Spring then said, with a firm voice, “For more than ten years I have done my work as a sheep dog should. Last night, as I lay on the ground, a wolf leapt forth from the wood, sprang at a lamb, and drank its blood, then let fall his prize, and stood at bay. We fought, and I slew the wolf. But now, when I saw the lamb, as it lay dead on the grass, I could in no way curb my wish to eat it. While I was at my feast, the ewe came up to seek for her young one; so, lest she should charge its death on me, I thought it best to kill her. Just then, up came the man of the farm, who of course thought that I had put both to death. His eye met mine; he held up his staff; I could not pause; dead men tell no tales, thought I, and so flew at his throat. You know, too well, the rest.” If we do not crush sin in the bud, it will grow strong, and crush us. Do what you ought, come what may. THE BIRDS, THE BEASTS, AND THE BAT. The birds and the beasts once went to war. The bat--which could not be said to be bird or beast--at first kept out of the way of both, but when he thought the beasts would win the day, he was found in their ranks, and to prove his right to be there, he said, “Can you find a bird that has two rows of teeth in his head, as I have?” At last the birds had the best of the fight, so then the bat was seen to join their ranks. “Look,” said he, “I have wings, so what else can I be but a bird?” “To grind with all winds” was thought base in the bat by both sides of the fight, and he could not get bird or beast to own him, and to this day he hides and skulks in caves and stems of trees, and does not come out till dark, when all the birds of the air have gone to roost, and the beasts of the field are wrapt in sleep. One must not blow hot and cold. THE BOY AND THE NUTS.