WHOSE EGG?

Evening Post, Volume CVII, Issue 10, 12 January 1929, Page 15

WHOSE EGG?

■In tiio market- place - .of Aiuiecy, France, a live 'hen lay pinioned .upon thei. : ground, awaiting sale, and a bargaining woman bought ife and paid the .purchase price. That having been."done, the hen laid an egg, which both the purchaser and vendor claimed. ' - ... As the heu had-become her pi-operty; the egg also, was hers, the buyer argued, while:the seller urged that she had sold the hen only, and that the egg belonged to. her basket. ■ ■■■-,• ' • ;• • ■ Both parties went before .the/Magistrate,, who found the problem as perplexing as that presented to Solomon concerning the ownership of a' child. The modern judge, however, who- had no remedy at command, saw in. the ease a matter upon, which many future issues might turn, so. he adjourned the: trial until ho had examined all tho precedents which could havo any bearing to. guide him to a right decision. In the meantime the egg will go bad, and both tho litigants will lose.. It reminds us of a talo that-Aesop tells. - . ■ ■■ ■"'•' - ■•■'■•• A certain .travellor hired an ass for a journey, and, the day-being intensely, hot, he lay down when the hoat was greatest in the shade of tho donkey; This the owner of the animal would not permit, claiming the shade fov himself* "You hired only the ass,'not his shad« ow," ho protosted. - '". . ■'■ !; Thcrowas not sufficient shadow frorti tlio unimnl to afford relief toboth men, so they fell to.fighting; Their violence startled tho donkey, which galloped away and left both disconsolate, ' an, ending Which- prompted- : Aesop to remark that in quarrelling about the shadow we often lose the substance. *

Ami this is the small messenger who's i>ccn sent to ftml the laogino summer. ! can't think how Gladyt get* them to posij for hw, can you?