an eagle and his mate flew into a deep forest and determined to make it their permanent abode. so they chose an oak, lofty and wide-spreading, and began to build themselves a nest on the top of it, hoping there to rear their young in the summer.

a mole, who heard about all this, plucked up courage enough to inform the eagles that the oak was not a proper dwelling-place for them; that it was almost entirely rotten at the root, and was likely soon to fall, and that therefore the eagles ought not to make their nest upon it.

but is it becoming that an eagle should accept advice coming from a mole in a hole? where then would be the glory of an eagle having such keen eyes? and how comes it that moles dare to meddle in the affairs of the king of birds?

so, saying very little to the mole, whose counsel he despised, the eagle set to work quickly—and the king soon got ready the new dwelling for the queen.

all goes well, and now the eagles have little ones. but what happens? one day, when at early dawn the eagle is hastening back from the chase, bringing a rich breakfast to his family, as he drops down from the sky he sees—his oak has fallen, and has crushed beneath it his mate and his little ones!

"wretched creature that i am!" he cries, anguish blotting out from him the light; "for my pride has fate so terribly punished me, and because i gave no heed to wise counsel. but could one expect that wise counsel could possibly come from a miserable mole?"

then from its hole the mole replies: "had not you despised me, you would have remembered that i burrow within the earth, and that, as i live among the roots, i can tell with certainty whether a tree be sound or not."