Chapter XIV: The Old Goat and His Pupil

A FABLE.

A spruce young goat tried very hard to make himself appear like a sheep. He endeavored to talk and act like a sheep. Half his time was spent in putting on airs. He went so far as to cut off his beard, so that he might bear a more striking resemblance to the sheep family; and he was once heard to say that he would give anything if he could either get rid of his horns altogether, or have them twisted as the horns were worn by some of the old fathers whom he so much admired. The little simpleton, however, lost more than he gained by his singular manners. Instead of his being more respected and beloved, as he expected to be, he was despised by everybody.

One day, after being ridiculed and abused by some of his young neighbors, he went to his schoolmaster with a great budget full of troubles. This schoolmaster was an old goat, with a long beard, and a long head, too, as it would seem from the character he had.

"O dear!" said the little simpleton, "everybody hates me. I wish I were dead. I'm sure I don't know what it means. The more I try to be good, the less they all like me."

"My dear fellow," said Mr. Longbeard, "I am sorry for you. But I can do nothing to help you. It will always be so, until you do better."

"Why, I do as well as I can now," replied the young goat.

"You ape the sheep too much."

"Well, the farmer thinks more of his sheep than he does of his goats--a great deal more."

"And what of it?"

"Why, if he likes the sheep best, he will like me best when I act as the sheep do."

"That's your mistake. He will not like you half as well."

"Why not?"

"For the same reason that nobody else likes you so well--because you don't act like yourself. Take my advice, now. _Be yourself_. Don't try to be anybody else. Depend upon it, if you ever come across a person that likes you, he will like you as a goat, and not as a sheep. A sheep you could never be, though you should practice all your life-time. Be a goat, then--be a goat, and nothing else."

This advice, I believe, proved of some service to the juvenile goat; and by the way, reader, perhaps it may be worth something to you.