ONE"S OWN CHILDREN ARE ALWAYS PRETTIEST

A sportsman went out once into a wood to shoot, and he met a _Snipe_.

"Dear friend," said the _Snipe_, "don"t shoot my children!"

"How shall I know your children?" asked the _Sportsman_. "What are they like?"

"Oh!" said the _Snipe_, "mine are the prettiest children in all the wood."

"Very well," said the _Sportsman_, "I"ll not shoot them; don"t be afraid."

But for all that, when he came back, there he had a whole string of young snipes in his hand which he had shot.

"Oh, oh!" said the _Snipe_, "why did you shoot my children after all?"

"What! these your children!" said the _Sportsman_; "why, I shot the ugliest I could find, that I did!"

"Woe is me!" said the _Snipe_; "don"t you know that each one thinks his own children the prettiest in the world?"

© 2024 www.topnovel.cc