It is quite right to sleep through the dark night, but this man slept in the daytime as well, instead of weeding his garden, and tying up the grapes, so we say he was a sluggard. What an ugly word it is! Would =you= like to be a sluggard? No, indeed you would not. Then remember this:--
85. The Elephant that Stole the Cakes.[16]
Far away in a country called India there are many elephants, which are used for hunting, and also for carrying burdens.
One evening a driver brought his elephant home, and chained him to a tree; then he went a short distance away, and made an oven to bake his cakes for supper. You will wonder how this was done.
First he dug a hole in the ground, in which to place his fuel, and when he had set the fuel alight, he covered it with a flat stone or plate of iron, and on this he put his rice cakes to bake. He then covered them up with grass and stones and went away.
The elephant had been watching all this, and when the man was gone, he unfastened the chain which was round his leg with his trunk, went to the oven, uncovered the cakes, and took them off with his trunk and ate them. (Perhaps he waited a little while until they cooled, for the elephant does not like his food hot.) Then he put back the grass as before, and returned to the tree. He could not manage to fasten the chain round his leg again, so he just twisted it round as well as he could, and stood with his back to the oven as if nothing had happened.
By-and-by the driver returned, and went to see if his cakes were ready. They were all gone, and the elephant was peeping over his shoulder to see what would happen next. The driver knew by his guilty look that =he= was the thief; the elephant knew he had done wrong and was ashamed.
Let us not do anything that we need be ashamed of. We know what is right better than the elephant, because we can think better.
"Listen, boys," said the teacher, "I am going to tell you about a land across the sea, not much more than twenty miles from England--the sunny land of France." So he went on to tell them of the vines loaded with grapes, from which wine is made; of the apples growing by the roadside, and of the French people, how gay and merry they are, and how neatly the poor people dress.