A little boy wearied with a long journey, lay down overcome with

　　fatigue on the very brink1 of a deep well. Being within an inch of

　　falling into the water, Dame2 Fortune, it is said, appeared to him, and

　　waking him from his slumber3, thus addressed him: "Little boy, pray

　　wake up: for had you fallen into the well, the blame will be thrown on

　　me, and I shall get an ill name among mortals; for I find that men are

　　sure to blame their calamities4 to me, however much by their own

　　folly they have really brought them on themselves."

　　"Every one is more or less master of his own fate."