The Spendthrift and the Swallow

A dissolute young man who had spent all his fortune, and had only his cloak left, when he spied a Swallow coming forth out of season, thought that spring was at hand, and so went and sold his cloak, as having no immediate use for it. But afterward, when a storm arose, and the air was very keen, he saw the Swallow lying desolate and dead, and said to her: "Ah, my friend, you have ruined me, and are lost yourself."

The fable teaches that one swallow does not make a summer.