A BLACKBIRD that wanted to impress on his neighbor the wren a proper sense of his great importance took occasion every now and then to remark that he was related to still larger birds.

“My cousin the crow,” he would say, “did so and so,” or “invited me to his nest at such a time.”

After hearing this over and over again, the wren answered one day,

“When I used to look at you alone and by yourself, you appeared as a very large bird in my eyes; but since I’ve got to contrasting you with the crow, you seem to have grown smaller even than myself.”

Better be satisfied with our own significance than seek to array ourselves in the consequence of other people.