He stuck them into his own tail, and, thinking himself
too fine to mix with the other daws, strutted off to the peacocks,
expecting to be welcomed as one of themselves.
The peacocks at once saw through his disguise, and, despising him
for his foolishness and conceit, began to peck him, and soon he was
stripped of all his borrowed plumes.
Very much ashamed, the jackdaw went sadly home, meaning to join his
old friends as if nothing had happened. But they, remembering how he
had scorned them before, chased him away and would have nothing to do
with him.
"If you had been content," said one, "to remain as nature made you,
instead of trying to be what you are not, you would have neither been
punished by your betters nor despised by your equals."
* * * * *
THE FOX WITHOUT A TAIL
A fox lost his tail in escaping from a steel trap. When he began to
go about again, he found that every one looked down upon or laughed at
him. Not liking this, he thought to himself that if he could persuade
the other foxes to cut off their tails, his own loss would not be so
noticeable.
Accordingly he called together the foxes and said: "How is it that you
still wear your tails? Of what use are they? They are in the way, they
often get caught in traps, they are heavy to carry and not pretty to
look upon.
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