Aesop's Fables
A
YOUNG MAN, a great
spendthrift, had run through all his
patrimony and had but
one good cloak left. One day he happened to see a
Swallow, which had appeared before its
season,
skimming along a pool and
twittering gaily. He supposed that
summer had come, and went and sold his cloak. Not many days later,
winter set in again with renewed frost and cold. When he found the unfortunate Swallow
lifeless on the ground, he said, "Unhappy bird! what have you done? By thus appearing before the springtime you have not only killed yourself, but you have
wrought my destruction also."