THE OLD DAME AND HER MAIDS. In the good old times, when there were no clocks, an old dame kept a cock in her yard, which at dawn of day gave a loud crow, and then she got up to rouse her maids, that they might go to their work. But they thought it hard to be woke out of their sweet sleep at such an hour, so, one day, they wrung the cock’s neck. The next night the old dame slept till late, as she had not heard the cock crow; but when she found that he was dead, and that there was now no means by which to tell the time, she went at all hours of the night to wake up her maids, for fear they should sleep too long. Strive to mend, and you will oft times mar what’s well. THE TWO GOATS ON THE BRIDGE. Two goats that had been brought up in the same glen, left it, and by chance met on a bridge, which was a mere plank, and would not hold them both side by side. One of the fair ones set her foot on it, and her friend was not slow to do the same. They came up, step by step, till they met half way, and as they could not pass, and were both too proud to give in, each did her best to push by with a skip and jump, till at last the plank broke, and they both fell in, and were borne off by the stream. It is not so bad to clear the way as to fall in the ditch. THE AX AND THE TREES. Once on a time a man came to a wood to ask the trees if they would give him a stick for his ax. This was so small a boon to ask, that the chief trees said at once, “By all means, give him what he wants from a good tough ash.” But as soon as the man had made the stick fit the ax, he fell to work with it to hack and hew down all the best trees in the wood. The oak was heard to say, in sad tones to the beech, “The first step has lost us all. We gave up our poor friend the ash to the foe. But for this we might all have stood for an age to come; now we must take our sad fate for our pains.” THE DOG AND THE THIEF.