The Lectures of Bret Harte Author:Bret Harte, Charles Meeker Kozlay Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: The Fox and the Grapes A thirsty fox one day, in passing through a vineyard, noticed that the grapes were hanging in clusters from vines which were trained to... more » such a height as to be out of his reach. "Ah," said the fox, with a supercilious smile, "I've heard of this before. In the twelfth century an ordinary fox of average culture would have wasted his energy and strength in the vain attempt to reach yonder sour grapes. Thanks to my knowledge of vine culture, however, I at once observe that the great height and extent of the vine, the drain upon the sap through the increased number of tendrils and leaves must, of necessity, impoverish the grape, and render it unworthy the consideration of an intelligent animal. Not any for me thank you." With these words he coughed slightly, and withdrew. Moral—This fable teaches us that an intelligent discretion and some botanical knowledge are of the greatest importance in grape culture. The Fox and the Stork A fox one day invited a stork to dinner, but provided for the entertainment only the first course, soup. This being in a shallow dish, of course the fox lapped up readily, but the stork, by means of his long bill, was unable to gain a mouthful. "You do not seem fond of soup," said the fox, concealing a smile in his napkin. "Now it is one of my greatest weaknesses." "You certainly seem to project yourself outside of a large quantity,"said the stork, rising with some dignity, and examining his watch with considerable empressement; "but I have an appointment at eight o'clock, which I had forgotten. I must ask to be excused. Au revoir. By the way, dine with me to.morrow." The fox assented, arrived at the appointed time, but found, as he fully expected, nothing on the table but a single long.necked bottle, containing oliv...« less