Aesop's Fables Edited by Charles Stikeney.

 

THE SPENDTHRIFT AND
THE SWALLOW

A  Young  man  who was a great spendthrift, and had run  through  all  the  money  he had  inherited,  and  even  sold  all his outer clothing except his cloak, saw a Swallow skim- ming over the meadows in the early  spring- time, and twittering gaily.   Believing  that summer was really come,  he  sold  his  cloak also.    The next morning there happened  to  be a severe frost, and, shivering himself, he found the Swallow lying frozen and stiff upon  the ground.    "Unhappy  bird,"  he  said,  "had  you  not come before your time,  I should not now be so  wretched,  and  you  might  have  escaped your fate."    A  single  swallow  does  not  make  a  sum- mer.