ASTER

and thought themselves ill-treated. So they sent a new petition to Zeus, praying for a real King. Zeus was displeased at their complaint and sent them a Stork. The new King soon began to gobble them up, and the Frogs, repenting of their choice, complained to Zeus, but it was too late. Then said an old Frog, "It is better to have no king, or an idle king, than a cruel king.'

THE ASS IN THE LION'S SKIN.

AN ass, finding the skin of a Lion, which hunters had laid out to dry, put it on himself. Going towards his village, he frightened the herds, and even men ran away. Delighted with his prowess he approached his owner, who had often beaten him. The man was at first frightened also, but presently, seeing his long ears stick out, recognized the Ass. Then, taking a cudgel, he beat him soundly and stripped him of his covering. There is no disguise so complete that a wise man cannot detect the truth.

BABRIUS.

BABRIUS was the Greek versifier of Esop. Though his name was preserved by the grammarians, the period to which he belongs is uncertain. Some put him about 250 B.C., others as many years after Christ. But he nowhere refers to Rome or Italy, and his style favors the earlier date. An imperfect version of his Æsopic fables was found in 1844 in a manuscript of the tenth century in a convent on Mount Athos. It contained one hundred and twenty-three fables. Another part, whose genuineness has been suspected, came to light in 1857. They have all been versified in English by Rev. J. Davies.

THE ARCHER AND THE LION.

A SKILLFUL Archer the hill country sought,
Intent on sport. His coming quickly brought
To every wild beast fear and headlong flight.

The Lion only tarried to invite

The archer's onslaught. "Haste not! Pr'ythee stay,"

The stranger said; "nor hope to win the day.

Learn from mine envoy, whom you soon shall meet,

Your wisest plan." Forth sped his arrow fleet

From no great distance, and was buried deep

In the least fank. Laid his post to keep,
The wounded Lon saght essayed to iy
To where the ones me woodland fuckets le
But, ic! a Fox vis standing it is side,
W10 irged im sl de Acher's sharts to bide
* Not so. * fie Lon said; "beguile not me!
You envoy came but now sa bitterly,
That doubly ierce his master needs must be."

THE NORTH WOD AND THE SUN.

BETWT the North wind and the Sun arose
A contest, wich would soonest of his cicthes
Strip a wayfaring clown; so runs the tale.
First Boreas bicws an almost Thracian gale,
Thinking perire to steal the man's capote:
He loosed it act: but as the cold wind smote
More sharply, tighter round him drew the fold
And sheltered by a crag his station boids.
But now the Sen at first peered gently forth,
And thawed the chills of the uncanny north;
Then in their turn his beams more amply plied,
Till sudden beat the clown's endurance tried:
Stripping himself, away his cloak be flung:
The Sun from Boreas thus a triumph wrung.
The fable means, "My son, at mildness aim:
Persuasion more results than force may claim.”

THE WOLF AND THE LAMB.

A WOLF beheld a lambkin once astray, And did not give brute force at once its way, But, bent to seize it, found this specious plea: "Small though you were last year, you slandered me." "Nay! how last year? A year I've not been born.” "Well, then, you nibbled my own field of corn!” "I eat nor grass nor corn! A nursling still!" "Have you not drunk then of my private rill?" "As yet, my mother's milk's my beverage." Upsprang the wolf, and ate the lamb in rage. "A wolf," said he, "can't for his supper wait, Though all his pleas you may invalidate."