Aesop's Fables
A
MAN wished to
purchase an
Ass, and agreed with its
owner that he should try out the animal before he bought him. He took the Ass home and put him in the
straw-yard with his other Asses, upon which the new animal left all the others and at once joined the one that was most
idle and the greatest
eater of them all. Seeing this, the man put a
halter on him and led him back to his owner. On being asked how, in so short a time, he could have made a trial of him, he answered, "I do not need a
trial; I know that he will be just the same as the one he chose for his
companion." A man is known by the
company he
keeps.