In a great lake lived three full-grown fishes, whose names were Forethought, Readywit, and Fatalist. Now one day the fish named Forethought overheard passers-by on the bank and fishermen saying: “There are plenty of fish in this pond. Tomorrow we go fishing.”

On hearing this, Forethought reflected: “This looks bad. Tomorrow or the day after they will be sure to come here. I will take Readywit and Fatalist and move to another lake whose waters are not troubled.” So he called them and put the question.

Thereupon Readywit said: “I have lived long in this lake and cannot move in such a hurry. If fishermen come here, then I will protect myself by some means devised for the occasion.”

But poor, doomed Fatalist said: “There are sizable lakes elsewhere. Who knows whether they will come here or not? One should not abandon the lake of his birth merely because of such small gossip. And the proverb says:

Since scamp and sneak and snake

So often undertake

A plan that does not thrive,

The world wags on, alive.

Therefore I am determined not to go.”And when Forethought realized that their minds were made up, he went to another body of water.

On the next day, when he had gone, the fishermen with their boys beset the inner pool, cast a net, and caught all the fish without exception. Under these circumstances Readywit, while still in the water, played dead. And since they thought: “This big fellow died without help,” they drew him from the net and laid him on the bank, from which he wriggled back to safety in the water. But Fatalist stuck his nose into the meshes of the net, struggling until they pounded him repeatedly with clubs and so killed him.

“And that is why I say:

Forethought and Readywit thrive;

Fatalist can’t keep alive.”

“My dear,” said the plover, “Why do you think me like Fatalist?

Horses, elephants, and iron,

Water, woman, man,

Sticks and stones and clothes are built

On a different plan.

Feel no anxiety. Who can bring humiliation upon you while my arms protect you?”

So Constance laid her eggs, but the ocean, who had listened to the previous conversation, thought: “Well, well! There is sense in the saying:

Of self-conceit all creatures show

An adequate supply:

The plover lies with claws upstretched

To prop the falling sky.

I will just put his power to the test.”

So the next day, when the two plovers had gone foraging, he made a long reach with his wave-hands and eagerly seized the eggs. Then when the hen-plover returned and found the nursery empty, she said to her husband: “See what has happened to poor me. The ocean seized my eggs today. I told you more than once that we should move, but you were stupid as Fatalist and would not go. Now I am so sad at the loss of my children that I have decided to burn myself.”

“My dear,” said the plover, “wait until