It hath been well written, indeed,

’Gifts, bestowed with words of kindness, making giving doubly dear:—­
Wisdom, deep, complete, benignant, of all arrogancy clear;
Valor, never yet forgetful of sweet Mercy’s pleading prayer;
Wealth, and scorn of wealth to spend it—­oh! but these be virtues

                rare!’

“Frugal one may be,” continued Slow-toes; “but not a niggard like the Jackal—­

’The Jackal-knave, that starved his spirit so,
And died of saving, by a broken bow.’

“Did he, indeed,” said Golden-skin; “and how was that?”

“I will tell you,” answered Slow-toes:—­

THE STORY OF THE DEAD GAME AND THE JACKAL

“In a town called ‘Well-to-Dwell’ there lived a mighty hunter, whose name was ‘Grim-face,’ Feeling a desire one day for a little venison, he took his bow, and went into the woods; where he soon killed a deer.  As he was carrying the deer home, he came upon a wild boar of prodigious proportions.  Laying the deer upon the earth, he fixed and discharged an arrow and struck the boar, which instantly rushed upon him with a roar louder than the last thunder, and ripped the hunter up.  He fell like a tree cut by the axe, and lay dead along with the boar, and a snake also, which had been crushed by the feet of the combatants.  Not long afterwards, there came that way, in his prowl for food, a Jackal, named ‘Howl o’ Nights,’ and cast eyes on the hunter, the deer, the boar, and the snake lying dead together.  ‘Aha!’ said he, ’what luck!  Here’s a grand dinner got ready for me!  Good fortune can come, I see, as well as ill fortune.  Let me think:—­the man will be fine pickings for a month; the deer with the boar will last two more; the snake will do for to-morrow; and, as I am very particularly hungry, I will treat myself now to this bit of meat on the bow-horn,’ So saying, he began to gnaw it asunder, and the bow-string slipping, the bow sprang back, and resolved Howl o’ Nights into the five elements by death.  That is my story,” continued Slow-toes, “and its application is for the wise:—­

    ’Sentences of studied wisdom, nought avail they unapplied;
    Though the blind man hold a lantern, yet his footsteps stray aside.’

The secret of success, indeed, is a free, contented, and yet enterprising mind.  How say the books thereon?—­

    ’Wouldst thou know whose happy dwelling Fortune entereth unknown? 
    His, who careless of her favor, standeth fearless in his own;
    His, who for the vague to-morrow barters not the sure to-day—­
    Master of himself, and sternly steadfast to the rightful way: 
    Very mindful of past service, valiant, faithful, true of heart—­
    Unto such comes Lakshmi[9] smiling—­comes, and will not lightly part.’

“What indeed,” continued Slow-toes, “is wealth, that we should prize it, or grieve to lose it?—­