FABLES. 



THE HUSBANDMAN AND HIS SONS. 



A HUSBANDMAN, at the point of death, being 

 desirous that his Sons should pursue the same inno- 

 cent course of agriculture in which he himself had 

 been engaged all his lifa, made use of this expe- 

 dient. He called them to his bed-side, and said: 

 All the patrimony I have to bequeath to you, my 

 Sons, is my farm and my vine-yard, of which I 

 make you joint heirs; but I charge you not to let 

 them go out of your own occupation, for if I have 

 any treasure besides, it lies buried somewhere in 

 the ground, within a foot of the surface. This 

 made the Sons conclude that he talked of money 

 which he had hidden : so after their father's death, 

 with unwearied diligence, they carefully dug up 

 every inch, and though they found not the money 

 they expected, the ground, by being well stirred 

 and loosened, produced so plentiful a crop of all 



