Dear Sprightly, adds he, I will not fail to do all that you have
said, and you shall see how I shall acquit myself. They held
their peace after this discourse, of which the merchant heard
every word.

Next morning betimes the labourer came to take the ox; he
fastened him to the plough, and carried him to his ordinary work.
The ox, who had not forgotten the ass's counsel, was very
troublesome and untoward all that day; and in the evening, when
the labourer brought him back to the stall, and began to fasten
him to it, the malicious beast, instead of presenting his horns
willingly as he used to do, was restive, and went backward
bellowing, and then made at the labourer as if he would have
pushed him with his horns; in a word, he did all that the ass
advised him to. Next day the labourer came, as usual, to take the
ox to his labour; but, finding the stall full of beans, the straw
that he put in the night before not touched, and the ox lying on
the ground with his legs stretched out, and panting in a strange
manner, he believed him to he sick, pitied him, and thinking;
that it was not proper to carry him to work, went immediately and
acquainted the merchant with it; who, perceiving that the ox had
followed all the mischievous advices of the ass, whom he thought
fit to punish for it, ordered the labourer to go and put the ass
in the ox's place, and to be sure to work him hard. The labourer
did so: the ass was forced to draw the plough all that day; which
fatigued him so much the more, as he was not accustomed to that
sort of labour; besides, he had been so soundly beaten, that he
could scarcely stand when he came back.

Meanwhile the ox was mightily pleased; he ate up all that was in