A Husbandman pitched a net in
his fields,
to take the cranes and wild
geese that
came to feed upon the newly-sown corn.
In this net he took
several both of cranes
and geese, and among them, on one occasion,
a Stork. The cranes and geese accepted their
lot as one of the chances to which such lives
as theirs were subject; but the Stork was
in
very sad case, and pleaded hard for his life.
Among other reasons why he should not be
put to death, the Stork
urged that he was
neither goose nor crane, but a poor, harmless
Stork, who performed his duty to his parents
as well as ever he could, feeding them when
they were old, and carrying them, when
re-
quired, from place to place upon
his back.
"All this may be true," replied
the Hus-
bandman; "but, as I have taken
you in bad
company, and in the same crime, you must
expect to suffer the same punishment."
People are judged by the
company they
keep.
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