Will you kindly direct me to a spot where my corpse will prove
peculiarly offensive?"
"Since you are so ill," replied the cat, "I will myself transport you
to a spot which I think will suit."
So saying, she struck her teeth through the nape of his neck and
trotted away with him. This was more than he had bargained for, and he
squeaked shrilly with the pain.
"Ah!" said the cat, "a rat who knows he has but a few minutes to live,
never makes a fuss about a little agony. I don't think, my fine
fellow, you have taken poison enough to hurt either you or me."
So she made a meal of him.
If this fable does not teach that a rat gets no profit by lying, I
should be pleased to know what it does teach.
III.
A frog who had been sitting up all night in neighbourly converse with
an echo of elegant leisure, went out in the grey of the morning to
obtain a cheap breakfast. Seeing a tadpole approach,
"Halt!" he croaked, "and show cause why I should not eat you."
The tadpole stopped and displayed a fine tail.
"Enough," said the frog: "I mistook you for one of us; and if there is
anything I like, it is frog. But no frog has a tail, as a matter of
course."
While he was speaking, however, the tail ripened and dropped off, and
its owner stood revealed in his edible character.
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