Atondido Stories
"Jump on my back," said the lamb. "I'll carry you."
The toad shook about on the lamb's back after they had start-
ed so that it seemed as if he would surely fall off. After a little he
said, "I can not possibly stand riding like this. It jars all my sore
spots. I'll have to get off." He tried it a little while longer and
shook about worse than ever. Then he said, "Do you know, I
think I could endure this painful ride a little better if only I had
something to hold myself by? Do you mind if I take a piece of
grass and put it in your mouth? I can hold on to that when I
shake about and my sore spots will not hurt so much."
The lamb let the toad put a piece of grass in his mouth.
After a while the toad asked for a little stick. "The flies and mos-
quitoes annoy me terribly," he said. "If only I had a little stick I
could wave it about over my head and frighten them away. It is
very bad for any one in my weak, nervous condition to be both-
ered by flies and mosquitoes." The lamb let the toad have a little
stick to wave over his head.
At last the lamb and the toad drew near to the palace of the
king. The king's daughter was leaning out of the window watch-
ing for them. The toad dug his feet into the lamb's sides, pulled
hard on the piece of the grass in the lamb's mouth and waved
the little stick about over the lamb's head. "Go on, horse," he said
and the king's daughter heard him. She laughed and laughed,
and when all the rest of the people in the palace saw the toad ar-
riving mounted on the lamb's back and driving him like a horse
they laughed too. The lamb went meekly home to his pasture
and from that day to this when one wishes to speak of meekness
one says "as meek as a lamb."
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