THE WOLF
AXD THE LAMB.
One hot sultry
dav, a Wolf and a Lamb happened to come, just at the same time, to quench their
thirst in the stream of a silver brook, that ran tumbling down the side of a rocky
mountain. The Wolf stood upon the hioher m-ound: and the lamb at some distance from
him, down the current.
However, the
Wolf, having a mind to pick a quarrel with him, asked him, what he meant by disturbing
the water, and making it so muddy that he could not drink? and, at the
same time, demanded satisfaction.
The lamb, frightened
at this threatening charge, told him, in a tone as mild as
possible, that, with humble submission, he could not conceive how that could
be, since the water
that he drank, ran down from the Wolf to him, and, therefore, it could not
be disturbed so far up the stream.
" Be that
as it will," replies the Wolf, " you are a rascal; and I have been told
that you treated
me with ill language behind my back, about half a year ago."—" Upon my word,"
says the Lamb, " the time you mention, was before I was born.
" The
Wolf, finding it to no purpose to argue any longer against truth, fell into a
great passion, snarling,
and foaming at the mouth, as if he had been mad; and drawing nearer to the Lamb,
" Sirrali," says he, " if it was not you, it was your father, and
that's all one."—So he seized the poor, innocent, helpless thing, tore it in
pieces, and made a meal of it.
“He that wishes for
a quarrel will soon find
an occasion, or he
will make one.”
THE APPLICATION.
An ill-disposed
man will seldom fail to find a cause of dispute, when he intends to do an injury.
If you want a pretence, says the proverb, to whip a Dog, it is enough to say that
he eat up the frying-pan. Beware, therefore, of quarrelsome companions, for with
such, you play with edge-tools.
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