FABLES. 



THE FOX WITHOUT A TAIL. 



A Fox being caught in a trap, escaped after 

 much difficulty with the loss of his tail. He was, 

 however, a good deal ashamed of appearing in 

 public without this ornament, and, at last, to avoid 

 being singular and ridiculous in the eyes of his 

 own species, he formed the project of calling to- 

 gether an assembly of Foxes, and of persuading 

 them that the docking of their tails was a fashion 

 that would be very agreeable and becoming. Ac- 

 cordingly he made a long harangue to them for 

 that purpose, and endeavoured chiefly to shew the 

 awkwardness and inconvenience of a Fox's tail, 

 adding that they were quite useless, and that they 

 would be a very great deal better without them. 

 He asserted, that what he had only conjectured 

 and imagined before, he now found by experience 

 to be true, for he never enjoyed himself so much, 



