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A Gardener had an Ass which had a very hard time of it, what with

scanty food, heavy loads, and constant beating. The Ass therefore

begged Jupiter to take him away from the Gardener and hand him

over to another master. So Jupiter sent Mercury to the Gardener

to bid him sell the Ass to a Potter, which he did. But the Ass

was as discontented as ever, for he had to work harder than

before: so he begged Jupiter for relief a second time, and

Jupiter very obligingly arranged that he should be sold to a

Tanner. But when the Ass saw what his new master's trade was, he

cried in despair, "Why wasn't I content to serve either of my

former masters, hard as I had to work and badly as I was treated?

for they would have buried me decently, but now I shall come in

the end to the tanning-vat."

Servants don't know a good master till they have served a worse.

THE PACK-ASS, THE WILD ASS, AND THE LION