Ｔｈｅ Ｙｏｕｎｇ Ｐｒｉｎｃｅ ａｎｄ Ｏｌｄ Ｄｏｃｔｏｒ

Once upon a time there was a young prince(王子)who became quite ill. As a result of his illness， he developed some rather strange ideas. For example， he became convinced(確信)that he was a cow. Since it was the practice in his religion(宗教) to sacrifice(獻(xiàn)祭)cows，he then insisted on being sacrificed like all other cows. Many famous doctors were called in to treat him， but none of them was able to help him.

Finally， after all the others had failed， an old village doctor was called. The old doctor， after considering(思考) the case(病癥)carefully， began to pretend(裝扮)to the prince that he was the village priest(牧師)and that he had come to sacrifice the prince. He took out a long knife and began to feel the prince’s arms and legs in order to find the best place to cut him. Then suddenly he stopped.

He said that this animal was much too thin and weak to be sacrificed. It would be an insult(侮辱) to their religion to sacrifice such a poor animal.

The prince was naturally very much disturbed(打擾)，but he finally agreed with the doctor that he must get fatter if he wished to be sacrificed. He therefore began to eat and drink large quantities of food. He ate and ate， and， as the weeks passed， he became much fatter. But at the same time his strength also increased and his health improved. In fact， he soon felt so much better that he entirely forgot all about being a cow.