The Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1860-07-06 00:00:00

A FABLE FOR SMALL GERMANS.

My lit-tle dears,—There was once a French Wulf—
very gray, and gree-dy, and lean, and sly. Near the
wood iu which he lived grazed a large flock of sheep, in
the charge of a great many small dogs, who were al-ways
snarl-ing, and bit-ing, and quur-rel-ling u-mong them-
selves. The old Wolf knew that he was more than a
match for any of the dogs sin-gly, but he was a-fraid if
he ven-tur-ed to at-tack one of them the o-thers might
for-get their snar-ling to join in a league of de-fence
a-gainst him. There was one large dog iu par-ti-cu-lar,
call-ed Prince, who had long warned the rest of the
pack of the com-mon dan-ger to all from the old
Wolf, and had done his best to make them a-gree bet-
ter; "far so sure," said he, "as the Wolf suc-ceeds in
keep-ing us at log-ger-heads, he will take us, one by
one, with-out dif-ti-culty, and, when he has eat-en
us up, he will have hs own way with the
sheep." But they would not mind his words, and some
of them growl-ed at him, and said he was a trai-tor,
and on-ly wan-ted to get the sheep to him-self, and
that the Wolf was an hon-est beast, and loved the small
dogs, and would do the sheep no harm. The Wolf,
knowing that if he could on-ly suc-ceed in gam-ing
over the big dog Prince, he might eas-i-ly mas-ter
the small curs one by one, was always very po-lite
to Prince, and used to send him. civil mess-ages, its-
vi-ting him to take coun-cil with him, for the ben-e-fit
of the o-ther dogs, and the sheep. For a long time
the big dog on-ly growl-ed and trot-ted the o-ther way
when-e-ver he saw the Wolf ma-king to-wards him.
But at last, find-ing the Wolf would take no de-nial of
his in-vi-ta-tions, he sent him a let-ter, pro-mis-ing to
meet him. The Wolf was de-light-ed, and said to his
cubs, " Now I have the big dog at last." And off he
trot-ted to the place of meeting. It was in a thick wood
on a hill, with an old eas-tle built at the top. The
big dog was at the gate of the cas-tle, and when
the Wolf came up, with a grin that show-ed his long,
sharp teeth, he said—" Walk in, my dear Wolf ; I am
so glad to see you." Then the Wolf put his paw on
his heart and said, " Dear Prince, I have been wait-ing
so long for this hap-py meet-ing. Ido feel so fond of
all you dogs, and of those dear sheep you watch so well,
you can't think. I have a plan, by which the small
dogs will be a-ble to do their work so plea-sant-ly and
so ea-si-ly. What a shame it is that the poor lit-tle
beasts should be so hard work-ed, and kept out in all
wea-thers, guard-ing their sheep from the wick-ed
wolves that sur-round them. Now you are a great dog,
and ve-ry strong. Sup-pose you took the work of the
small dogs off their hands, and kept all the sheep your-
self. They might sleep in the sun, and you and I would
take care they had plen-ty of nice bones and haunches ;
and mean-while we would guard the sheep to-ge-ther."
Then the big dog laugh-ed and said, " A nice plan,
in-deed ! How ve-ry kind you are ! Here are all
the small dogs just in-side the gate. Per-haps you
will be kind e-nough to tell them the nice lit-tle plan
you have just told me, and see how they will like
it." Then the Wolf be-gan to feel very awk-ward and
un-com-fort-a-ble and felt that the big dog had led him
in-to a trap ; and he curl-ed up his mouth in-to what
he meant for a ve-ry sweet smile, and said, " No thank
you, dear Prince. I think I will not say any-thing to
them to-day. I have not got my speech quite rea-dy."
Then all the small dogs, who had beard all from in-side
the old cas-tle, began to yelp and to laugh, and to wag
their tails, and to set up a cry of, " How ve-ry kind you
are, dear Wolf, to think of to-king the charge of our
sheep off our hands !" So the Wolf, see-ing his plot was
de-test-ed, sneak-ed off with his tail be-tween his legs,
and from that time the small dogs knew that Prince
was their true friend, and were jea-lous of him no
long-er, and -Made up their own quar-rels, and the
Wolf was fain to keep his de-signs a-gainst the sheep in
the dark, till he could find a bet-ter time for put-ting
them iii ex-e-cu-tion.—Pymeh.