FABLE.

Maori Messenger : Te Karere Maori, Volume 2, Issue 46, 26 September 1850, Page 4

FABLE.

Whang the Miller. Whang the miller, was naturally avaricious; nobody loved money better than he, or more respected those who had it. When people would talk of a ricli man in company, Whang would say, "1 know him very well ; ho and I have long been intimate." Hal if ever a poor mnu were mentioned, he had not the least knowledge of him : he mijht be very well for might he knew, but lie was not fond of making many acquaintances, and loved to choose hi* company. Whang, however, with all bis eagerness for riches, was poor. He had nothing but the profits of his mill to support him; but though these were small, they were certain ; while it stood and went he was sure of eating ; and his frugality was such, that he every day laid sonic money by, which ho could at intervals ount mid contemplate with satisfaction. "Vet still his acquisitions rrerc not equal to his desires; he only fjund himself above want, whereas he desired to be possessed of affluence. Ono day, as ho was indulging these wishes, he was informed that a neighbour of his had found a pan of money under ground, having dreamed of it three* nights running before. These tidings were doggers to the heart of poor Whang. " Mere nm 1," arid he, " toiling and moiling Ironi morning to night, for a few paltry farthings, while neighbour Thank only goes quietly to bed, and dreams himself into thousands before morning. Oh that I could dream like him ! With what pleasure would I dig round the pan 1 how slily would I carry it home ! not even my wife should see 'me : nnd thca, oh the pleasure of thrusting one's hand into a heap of gold up to the elbow!" Such reflections as these only served to make the miller unhappy. lie discontinued his former assiduity ; he was quite disgusted with small gains, and his customeis began to forsake him. livery day lie repeated his wish, and every night laid liimsslf down to dream, l'ortuiip, that was for a long time unkind, at last, however, seemed to smile upon his distress, mid indulge I him with the wi hed-for vision. Ho dreamed, that under a part of ihc foundation of his mil), there was concealed n monstrous pan of gold and diamonds, buried iilecp in the ground mid covered with n large (bit stone. lie concealed his good luck from every person, as is usual in money dreams, in order to liiw the vision repeated the two succeeding nights, by which he should be certain of its truth. His wishes in this also were answered; he still dreamed of the same pan of money, in the very same place. Now, therefore, it was past a doubt j so getting up early on the third morning, he repaired alone with a tniiltnek in his hand to the mill, aid licga-i to undermine the part of 1)12 wall to whi/h the vision directed. The first omen of success that he met with, was a broken ring; digging still deeper, he turned up a housetile, quite new and entire.' At ljst, nfter much digying, he came to a broad, Hit, stone, but so large that it was bayond man's strength to remove it. . "There!" cticd he in ruptures, lo himself, "there it is; under this stone there is room for a very large pan of diamonds indeed. 1 must e'en go home to my wife and tell her the whole affair, and get her to assist me in turning it up." Away, therefore, he goes, an I acquaint? his wife with every circumstance of their good fortune, Ihr raptures on this occasion may be easily imagined ; she How round his neck, and embraced him in an agony of joy ; but these transports did not allay their eagerness tv> know the exact sum ; returning, therefore, 10 the place where Whang had been digging, there they found—not indeed the expected treasure; but the mill, their only support, undermined and fallen !

The application of this fa'de U so just Biul so general that the writer li«a left it to enforce its own moral. The world teems with Whangs, who, despising competence, achieve ruin in the insane hunt after ileal nfllucnce. It is the tl lily lesson of life. Men abandoning an humble happy home in quest of the " airdrawn" castles which their fancy paints, liat that the subject is a sore one, and the delusion of too recent a date we could point to many a New Zealand Whang who, iu abandoning the reasonable fruits their industry had acquired for them, undermined their prosperity, led by the silly dream that no pan could to too large to contain the heaps of.gold to be dug from.Calit'otn'm, These projectors, liko the impatient VVhang, mined their mills—'and, alas for the visions ! they find, when too lute, tint the i»old has eluded their grasp, and that the mill, which they despised, must, iftlicy would eat,' lie built up anew.