Book 4 — PARABLES AND FABLES.

VI.—THE WOLF AND THE DOG.

lean, hungry wolf, fell in one moonlight night with a jolly, plump, well-fed mastiff, and after the first greetings were passed, the wolf accosted him: "You look extremely well," said he, "I think I never saw a more graceful, comely personage; but how comes it about, I beseech you, that you should live so much better than I? I may say, without vanity, that I venture fifty times more than you do, and yet I am almost ready to perish with hunger." The dog answered very bluntly: "Why, you may live as well as I if you will do the same services for it." The wolf pricked up his ears at the proposal, and requested to be informed what he must do to earn such plentiful meals. "Very little," answered the dog; "only to guard the house at night, and keep it from thieves and beggars." "With all my heart," rejoined the wolf, "for at present I have but a sorry time of it; and, I think, to change my hard lodging in the woods, where I endure rain, frost, and snow, for a warm roof over my head and plenty of food, will be no bad bargain." "True," said the dog, "therefore, you have nothing more to do than to follow me."

2. As they were jogging along together, the wolf spied a circle, worn round his friend's neck, and, being almost as curious as some of a higher species, he could not forbear asking what it meant. "Pooh! nothing," said the dog, "or at most a mere trifle." "Nay, but pray," urged the wolf, "inform me." "Why, then," said the dog, "perhaps it is the collar to which my chain is fastened; for I am sometimes tied up in the day-time, because I am a little fierce, and might bite people, and am only let loose at night. But this is done with design to make me sleep in the day, more than anything else, that I may watch the better in the night-time. As soon as the twilight appears, I am turned loose, and may go where I please. Then my master brings me plates of bones from the table with his own hands; and whatever scraps are left by the family fall to my share, for you must know I am a favorite with everybody. So, seeing how you are to live, come along! Why, what is the matter with you?" "I beg your pardon," replied the wolf, "but you may keep your happiness to yourself. I am resolved to have no share in your dinners. Half a meal, with liberty, is, in my estimation, worth a full one without it."