"We will let that man settle our quarrel," said the Wind. "The one who can make him take his coat off is the stronger."

Then the Wind began to blow. It blew and it blew until the man was nearly blown But the harder the Wind blew, the closer the man held his coat about him.

over.

At last it was the Sun's turn to try his strength. It rose high up in the sky and shone and shone and shone.

Soon the man grew so warm he unbuttoned his coat. He wiped the perspiration from his forehead. Then he stopped, took off his coat and lay down in the shade of a big tree to cool off.

So the man settled the quarrel between the Wind and the Sun.

It takes two to make a quarrel.

-Aesop

THE WIND

I am the wind

And I come very fast. Through the tall wood

I blow a loud blast.

Sometimes I am soft

Like a sweet, gentle child,
I play with the flowers,
Am gentle and mild.

And then out so loud

All at once I can roar;
If you wish to be quiet,
Close window and door.

I am the wind

And I come very fast. Through the tall wood

I blow a loud blast.

Forgive and forget.

100

You may know whence he comes by his slimy track.

Creep, creep, how slowly he goes!

And you'd do the same if you carried your house.

The snail crawls out with his house on his

back.

But a blackbird is watching him on his track.

Tack, tack! on the roof of his house.

He gobbles him up as a cat does a mouse.

-Old English Song

THE FIELD MOUSE AND THE
CITY MOUSE

Once there was a little mouse that lived in a big, sunny field, and there was another mouse that lived in a fine house in the city.

One day the Field Mouse asked the City Mouse to have dinner with him. The mice had all the corn and wheat they wanted to eat and no one came into the field to frighten them.

But the City Mouse said, "What a lonely life you live here, my friend! Come to the city and see what a fine house I live in. I have all kinds of good things to eat too."

So the two mice started at once for the city. They feasted on bread and cheese and fruit and honey in the city house.

"How fine this is!" thought the Field Mouse. "How rich my friend is and how poor I am!"

But while they were eating some cheese a man suddenly opened the door. The mice were greatly frightened. They ran into a crack in the floor and stayed there a very long time.

Later, when they were eating some nice figs, a maid came in to get a pot of honey, and the mice had to hide in the hole again.