Page:Folk Tales of Beasts and Men.djvu/23

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There he met Mistress Goat

UPS AND DOWNS

THE summer had been very hot. Not a drop of rain had fallen for many weeks, and there was drought in the valley where the animals lived. The streams had dried up and the springs had ceased to flow. Master Fox took up his pipe and went out to take a walk under the lime-trees to think things over. There he met Mistress Goat, all dressed up in her Sunday clothes.

"Good morrow, cousin," said he. "You are very fine to-day."

"Yes," she answered, "I put on my best dress because it helps me to think. What we are to do for water I do not know. We have finished all that we had in the barrel, and unless we can find some more very quickly I and my children will die of thirst."

"To tell you the truth," said the Fox, "I was thinking the same thing. I am so dry that my tongue is sticking to

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