THE ASS AND HIS BURDENS
A Pedlar who owned an Ass one day bought a quantity of salt, and
loaded up his beast with as much as he could bear. On the way home the
Ass stumbled as he was crossing a stream and fell into the water. The
salt got thoroughly wetted and much of it melted and drained away, so
that, when he got on his legs again, the Ass found his load had become
much less heavy. His master, however, drove him back to town and
bought more salt, which he added to what remained in the panniers, and
started out again. No sooner had they reached a stream than the Ass
lay down in it, and rose, as before, with a much lighter load. But his
master detected the trick, and turning back once more, bought a large
number of sponges, and piled them on the back of the Ass. When they
came to the stream the Ass again lay down: but this time, as the
sponges soaked up large quantities of water, he found, when he got up
on his legs, that he had a bigger burden to carry than ever.
You may play a good card once too often.
![French - 800+ free-to-print self-test French-English worksheets, verbs + vocabulary, eg food + drink [38 pages], trees, numbers, shops, colours, telling the time, animals, birds, insects, sports, driving, car parts, tools, home, family, etc.](http://www.happychild.org.uk/Webimage/paris01.gif)
