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Famous StoriesBruce And The SpiderThere was once a king of Scot-land whose name was Robert Br... Pocahontas There was once a very brave man whose name was John Smith. ... The Sons Of William The Conqueror There was once a great king of England who was called Wil-l... The King And His Hawk Gen'ghis Khan was a great king and war-rior. He led his ... The Miller Of The Dee Once upon a time there lived on the banks of the River Dee ... The Black Douglas In Scotland, in the time of King Robert Bruce, there lived ... Other Wise Men Of Gotham One day, news was brought to Gotham that the king was comin... He Never Smiled Again The bark that held the prince went down, The sweep... Diogenes The Wise Man At Cor-inth, in Greece, there lived a very wise man whose n... Sir Philip Sidney A cruel battle was being fought. The ground was covered wit... Horatius At The Bridge Once there was a war between the Roman people and the E-tru... King Canute On The Seashore A hundred years or more after the time of Alfred the Great ... How Napoleon Crossed The Alps About a hundred years ago there lived a great gen-er-al who... Casabianca There was a great battle at sea. One could hear nothing but... The Inchcape Rock In the North Sea there is a great rock called the Inch-cape... Maximilian And The Goose Boy One summer day King Max-i-mil'ian of Ba-va'ri-a was walking... The Ungrateful Guest Among the soldiers of King Philip there was a poor man who ... The Endless Tale In the Far East there was a great king who had no work to d... King John And The Abbot The 3 Questions. There was once a king of England whose... Sir Humphrey Gilbert More than three hundred years ago there lived in England a ... |
THE BLIND MEN AND THE ELEPHANTThere were once six blind men who stood by the road-side every day, and begged from the people who passed. They had often heard of el-e-phants, but they had never seen one; for, being blind, how could they? It so happened one morning that an el-e-phant was driven down the road where they stood. When they were told that the great beast was before them, they asked the driver to let him stop so that they might see him. Of course they could not see him with their eyes; but they thought that by touching him they could learn just what kind of animal he was. The first one happened to put his hand on the elephant's side. "Well, well!" he said, "now I know all about this beast. He is ex-act-ly like a wall." The second felt only of the elephant's tusk. "My brother," he said, "you are mistaken. He is not at all like a wall. He is round and smooth and sharp. He is more like a spear than anything else." The third happened to take hold of the elephant's trunk. "Both of you are wrong," he said. "Anybody who knows anything can see that this elephant is like a snake." The fourth reached out his arms, and grasped one of the elephant's legs. "Oh, how blind you are!" he said. "It is very plain to me that he is round and tall like a tree." The fifth was a very tall man, and he chanced to take hold of the elephant's ear. "The blind-est man ought to know that this beast is not like any of the things that you name," he said. "He is ex-act-ly like a huge fan." The sixth was very blind indeed, and it was some time before he could find the elephant at all. At last he seized the animal's tail. "O foolish fellows!" he cried. "You surely have lost your senses. This elephant is not like a wall, or a spear, or a snake, or a tree; neither is he like a fan. But any man with a par-ti-cle of sense can see that he is exactly like a rope." Then the elephant moved on, and the six blind men sat by the roadside all day, and quar-reled about him. Each believed that he knew just how the animal looked; and each called the others hard names because they did not agree with him. People who have eyes sometimes act as foolishly. Next: MAXIMILIAN AND THE GOOSE BOY Previous: THE ENDLESS TALE
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