The Frogs Who Asked for a King

T HE commonwealth of Frogs, a discontented race, weary of liberty and fond of change, petitioned Jupiter to grant them a King.

The good-natured deity, in order to grant their request with as little mischief to them as possible, threw them down a Log. The splash sent them into the greatest terror and amazement, and at first they regarded their new monarch with great reverence and kept at a respectful distance. But by degrees, perceiving his amiable and peaceable disposition, they gradually ventured to approach him with more familiarity, till at length they conceived for him the upmost contempt.

Dissatisfied with this state of things, they renewed their request to Jupiter and entreated him to bestow upon them another King.

In his wrath the Thunderer sent them a Crane, who no sooner took possession of his new dominion than he began to devour his subjects, one after another.

They were now far more dissatisfied than before. Applying to Jupiter a third time, they were dismissed with the reproof that the evil of which they complained they had imprudently brought upon themselves; and that now they had no other remedy but to submit to it with patience.