THE BLUE WOLF.
A wolf once fell in a vat of blue dye which is made in the East. A man came by and thought he was dead, so he took him out and laid him on the bank and went his way; and then the wolf, glad to be safe, ran off to the woods. One by one, all the beasts came to gaze on him, and knew not what to make of him. So then the sly wolf said, “My fur is of a fine blue! You see in me a new kind of beast, and so I must, of course, be king of all the rest!” Then the bears, the boars, the apes, the wolves, as well as the ounce, the lynx, the bull, the fox, and all the rest of them, drew near to bow their heads to him as the lord of the wood. But soon the wolves thought they saw in the king some trace of kin, and one of them said, “Be it for me to find out, and let it be done as I say. At night you must all set up a loud yell near him, and if he be one of us—as I think he is—he will send forth a loud howl too.” So all at once the wolves put up their heads to howl, and they soon heard the new king join in the cry, for he could not help it. At this, a loud laugh rang through the wood from all the beasts of the plain. What is bred in the bone will not out of the flesh.