Fortune and the Fabulist

A writer of fables was passing through a lonely forest when he encountered a Fortune. Greatly alarmed, he attempted to climb a tree to escape, but the Fortune pulled him down and bestowed itself upon him with cruel persistence.

"Why did you try to run away?" asked the Fortune once the writer's struggles had ceased and his screams were stilled. "Why do you glare at me so inhospitably?"

"I don't know what you are," replied the writer, deeply disturbed.

"I am wealth; I am respectability," the Fortune explained. "I am elegant houses, a yacht, and a clean shirt every day. I am leisure, I am travel, wine, a shiny hat, and an unshiny coat. I am enough to eat."

"All right," said the writer in a whisper, "but for goodness' sake, speak lower."

"Why so?" the Fortune asked, surprised.

"So as not to wake me," replied the writer, a holy calm brooding upon his beautiful face.