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"Rascals!" he cried, "to run away like that after the way I've

treated you!" Hearing this, one of them turned round and said,

"Oh, yes, you treated us all right--too well, in fact; it was

just that that put us on our guard. If you treat newcomers like

ourselves so much better than your own flock, it's more than

likely that, if another lot of strange goats joined yours, we

should then be neglected in favour of the last comers."

THE NIGHTINGALE AND THE SWALLOW

A Swallow, conversing with a Nightingale, advised her to quit the

leafy coverts where she made her home, and to come and live with

men, like herself, and nest under the shelter of their roofs. But

the Nightingale replied, "Time was when I too, like yourself,

lived among men: but the memory of the cruel wrongs I then

suffered makes them hateful to me, and never again will I

approach their dwellings."

The scene of past sufferings revives painful memories.

THE TRAVELLER AND FORTUNE