Fables Ancient and Modern, Adapted for the Use of Children by Edward Baldwin

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1824. Excerpt: ... fitted, that there was not a chink for so much as a spider to hide himself. It was almost a miracle that the mice escaped, and at last got to a dark, dirty hole in some wainscot, where the town-mouse was accustomed to sleep. Come, said he to his guest, I dare say you are tired; you will stay snug here to-night. Not a minute, said the country-mouse, that 1 can help! As soon as every thing is once more quiet, I will take my leave of cities and ministers of state for ever. I dare say I shall not recover the fright I have been in for a fortnight. Give me a temperate life and a safe one. I shall thank you, the longest day I have to live, for the lesson you have taught me. I shall go home now, and know, better than ever I did before, the blessings of a hollow tree and a crust of bread. FABLE XI. THE MISER AND HIS TREASURE. A Poor man once scraped together by little and little a sum of fifty guineas. It was all got by the labour of nisown bands, and I believe it was some years before he had made it so much. In the village where he lived they had known him from a boy, and a smart, merry boy he was. He was always laughing from morning till night. This was certainly laughing too much; but the boy meant no harm, and every body laughed with him. Poor fellow, he had never learned to read or write; he thought he had no chance to be wise; he had heard something about merry and wise; and as he could not be wise, he determined to be merry, that he might be sure to be something. Well, when he was about twenty or thirty years old, the fancy took him, that he would save a penny or two-pence a day, till he had got fifty guineas. If he saved only two-pence a day he must have been fifteen years about it; but I believe he got some presents, and a little matter that his father an...