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Aesop's Fables Episode 10 · Aesop's Fables

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  The wolves and the sheep. Why should there always be this implacable warfare between
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  us, said the wolves to the sheep. Those evil disposed dogs have much
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  to answer for they always bark whenever we approach, and attack us before we
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  have done any harm. If you would only dismiss them from your heels,
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  there might soon be treaties of peace between us. The sheep, poor silly
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  creatures, were easily beguiled and dismissed the dogs. The wolves destroyed the unguarded
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  flock at their pleasure, change not friends for foes. The Fox and the
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  stark. The fox invited the stark to dinner and provided nothing but a soup
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  in a wide, shallow dish. This he could lap up with ease.
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  But the stark, who could but dip in the point of his bill,
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  was not a bit better. A few days after, he returned the compliment
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  and invited the fox, but suffered nothing to be brought to the table but
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  some minced meat in a glass jar, the neck of which was so deep
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  and so narrow, that though the stark with his long bill, could eat
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  very well, all that the fox could do was to lick the brims.
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  Reynard was heartily vexed, but owned that he had been used as he deserved.
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  Those who practiced cunning must expect to suffer by it. The bat and
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  the weasels. A bat, falling upon the ground, was caught by a
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  weasel, of whom he earnestly besought his life. The weasel refused, saying
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  that he was by nature the enemy of all birds. The bat assured him
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  that he was not a bird but a mouse, and thus saved his life.
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  Shortly afterward, the bat again fell on the ground and was caught by
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  another weasel, whom he likewise entreated not to eat him. The weasel said
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  that he had a special hostility to mice. The bat assured him that he
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  was not a mouse but a bat, and thus a second time escaped.
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  The hare and the tartise. A hare one day ridiculed the short feet and
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  slow pace of the tartoise. The latter, laughing, said, though you
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  be swift as the wind, I will beat you in a race. The
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  hare, deeming her assertion to be simply impossible, assented to the proposal,
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  and they agreed that the fox should choose the course and fix the goal.
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  On the day appointed for the race, they started together The tartise never for
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  a moment stopped, but went on with a slow but steady pace straight to
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  the end of the course. The hare, trusting to his native swiftness,
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  cared little about the race, and, lying down by the wayside, fell
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  fast asleep. At last, waking up and moving as fast as he could,
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  he saw the tartis had reached the goal and was comfortably dozing after her
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  fatigue. Perseverance is surer than swiftness. Jupiter and the Monkey. Jupiter issued
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  a proclamation to all the beasts of the forest and promised a royal reward to
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  the one whose offspring should be deemed the handsomest. The monkey came with the
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  rest and presented with all a mother's tenderness, a flat nosed, hairless,
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  ill featured young monkey as a candidate for the promised reward. A general laugh
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  saluted her. On the presentation of her son, She resolutely said, I
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  know not whether Jupiter will allot the prize to my son, but this I
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  do know, that he is the dearest, handsomest and most beautiful of all
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  who were here. A mother's love blinds her to many imperfections. The lion
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  in love a lion demanded the daughter of a woodcutter in marriage. The father,
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  unwilling to grant and yet afraid to refuse his request, hit upon this
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  expedient. He expressed his willingness to accept him as a suitor of his daughter,
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  on one condition that he should allow him to extract his teeth and cut
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  off his claws. The lion cheerfully assented to the proposal. When, however,
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  he next repeated his request, the woodman set upon him with his club.
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  The miser a miser had a lump of gold which he buried in the
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  ground, coming to look at the spot every day. One day he found
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  that it was stolen, and he began to his hair and loudly lament.
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  A neighbor seeing him, said, pray, do not grieve, so bury
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  a stone in the hole and fancy it is the gold. It will serve
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  you just as well, for when the goal was there, you made no
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  use of it. A wolf saw a goat feeding at the summit of a
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  steep precipice, where he had not a chance of reaching her. He called
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  to her and earnestly besought her to come lower down, lest she should,
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  by some mishap get a fall. And he added that the meadows lay where
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  he was standing, and that the herbage was most tender. She replied,
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  no, my friend, it is not of me your thinking, but of
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  yourself. Invitations prompted by selfishness are not to be accepted. A bald knight.
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  A bald knight who wore a wig went out to a sudden puff of
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  wind, blew off his hat and wig, at which a loud laugh rang
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  forth from his companions. He joined in the joke by saying, what marvel
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  of that hairs which are not mine should fly from me when my own had
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  forsaken even the man with whom they were born. Those who could not take
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  care of their own should not be entrusted with the care of another's property.
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  The Fox and the woodcutter. A fox running before the hounds came across a
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  woodcutter felling an oak, and besought him to show him a safe hiding place.
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  The woodcutter advised him to take shelter in his own hut. The fox
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  crept in and hid himself in a corner. The huntsman came up with his
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  hounds in a few minutes and inquired of the woodcutter if he had seen the
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  fox he declared that he had not seen him, and yet pointed all the
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  time he was speaking to the hut where the fox lay hid. The huntsman
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  took no notice of the signs, but believing his word, hastened forward in
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  the chase. As soon as they were well away, the fox departed without
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  taking any notice of the woodcutter, whereon he called to him and reproached him,
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  saying, you, ungrateful fellow. You owe your life to me,
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  and yet you leave me without a word of thanks. The fox replied,
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  indeed, I should have thanked you most fervently if your deeds had been as
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  good as your words. The Kid and the Wolf. A kid mounted on
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  a high rock bestowed all manner of abuse upon a wolf on the ground below.
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  The wolf, looking up, replied, do not think, vain creature
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  that you annoy me. I regard this ill language as coming not from you,
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  but from the place on which you stand. The Lion, the bear,
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  and the fox. A lion and a bear seized upon a kid at
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  the same moment and fought fiercely for its possession. When they had fearfully lacerated
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  each other and were faint from the long combat, they lay down exhausted with
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  fatigue. A fox, who had gone round them at a distance several times,
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  saw them both stretched on the ground, and the kid, lying untouched
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  in the middle, ran in between them and seized the kid, scampering off
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  as fast as he could. The lion and the bear saw him, but,
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  not being able to get up, said, woe betide us, that
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  we should have fought and belabored ourselves only to serve the turn of a fox.
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  It sometimes happens that one man has all the toil and another all the
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  prophet the stag in the ox stall. A stag, hardly pressed by the
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  hounds and blind from fear to the danger he was running into, took shelter
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  in a farmyard and hid himself in a shed among the oxen. An ox
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  gave him this kindly warning, O, unhappy creature, Why should you thus,
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  of your own accord, incur destruction and trust yourself in the house of
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  your enemy? The stag replied, Do you only suffer me, friend,
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  to stay where I am, and I will undertake to find some favorable opportunity
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  of effecting my escape. At the approach of the evening, the herdsman came
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  to feed his cattle but did not see the stag. The stag, congratulating
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  himself on his safety, began to express his sincere thanks to the oxen who
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  had kindly afforded him help in the hour of need. One of them again
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  answered him, we indeed wish you well, but the danger is not over.
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  There is one other yet to pass through this shed, who has,
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  as it were, a hundred eyes, and until he is come and gone,
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  your life is still in peril. At that moment, the master himself
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  entered, and, having had to complain that his oxen had not been properly
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  fed, he went up to their racks and cried out, why is there
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  such a scarcity of fodder? There is not half enough straw for them to
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  lie on. Those lazy fellows have not even swept the cobwebs away. While
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  he thus examined everything, he spied the antlers of the stag peeping out of
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  the straw. Summoning his laborers, he ordered that the stag should be killed.
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  What is safety for one is not always safety for another. The eagle
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  and the jackdaw an eagle, flying down from his airy on a lofty rock,
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  seized upon a lamb and carried him aloft in his talons. A jackdaw
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  who witnessed the capture of the lamb, was stirred with envy and determined to
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  emulate the stress and flight of the eagle. He flew round with a great
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  word of its wings and settled upon a large sheep, with the intention of
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  carrying it off. But his claws becoming entangled in his fleece, he was
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  unable to release himself, although he fluttered with his feathers as much as he
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  could. The shepherd, seeing what had happened, ran up and caught him.
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  He at once clipped his wings, and taking him moment night, gave
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  him to his children. We should not permit our ambition to lead us beyond
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  the limits of our power. The three tradesmen. A great city was besieged,
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  and its inhabitants were called together to consider the best means of protecting it
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  from the enemy. A bricklayer present earnestly recommended bricks, as it afforded the
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  materials for an effectual resistance. A carpenter with equal energy proposed timber as providing
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  a preferable method of defense, upon which a courier stood up and said,
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  Sirs, I differ from you. Altogether, there was no material for resistance
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  equal to a covering of hides, and nothing so good as leather. Every
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  man for his trade. The dancing monkeys. A prince had some monkeys trained
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  to dance. Being naturally great mimics of men's actions, they showed themselves most
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  apt students, and when arrayed in their rich clothes and masks, they danced
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  as well as any of the courtiers. The spectacle was often repeated with great
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  applause, till on one occasion a courtier, bent on mischief, took from
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  his pocket a handful of nuts and threw them upon the stage. The monkeys,
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  at the sight of the nuts, forgot their dancing and became as indeed
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  they were monkeys instead of actors, and pulling off their masks and tearing their
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  robes, they fought with one another for the nuts. The dancing spectacle thus
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  came to an end, amid the laughter and ridicule of the audience. Those
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  who assume a character will betray themselves by their actions. The ass and the
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  grasshopper. An ass, having heard some grasshoppers chirping, was highly enchanted and
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  desiring to possess the same charms of melody. Demanded what sort of food they
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  lived on to give them such beautiful voices, They replied the dew. The
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  ass resolved that he would live only on dew, and in a short time
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  died of hunger. Where one may live, another may starve. The ass
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  in the lion's skin. An ass, having put on the lion's skin,
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  roamed about in the forest and amused himself by frightening all the foolish animals he
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  met with in his wanderings. At last, meeting a fox, he tried
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  to frighten him also, But the fox no sooner heard the sound of his
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  voice than he exclaimed. I might possibly have been frightened myself if I had
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  not heard your bray. No disguise will hide one's true character. The boy
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  bathing. A boy bathing in a river was in danger of being drowned.
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  He called out to a traveler passing by for help. The traveler, instead
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  of holding out a helping hand, stood up unconcernedly and scolded the boy for
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  his imprudence. Oh, sir, cried the youth. Pray help me now,
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  and scold me afterwards. Counsel without help is useless. The cock and
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  the fox. The fox passing early one summer's morning, near a farm yard,
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  was caught in a springe which the farmer had planted there for that end.
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  The cock, at a distance, saw what happened, and, hardly
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  yet daring to trust herself too near so dangerous a foe, approached him cautiously
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  and peeped at him. Reynard addressed himself to him, with all the designing
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  artifice imaginable, dear cousin, said he you see what an unfortunate accident has
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  befallen me here and all upon your account. For as I was creeping through
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  yonder hedge in my way homeward, I heard you crow, and was resolved
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  to ask you how you did before I went away any further. But I
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  met with this disaster, and therefore now I must ask you for a knife
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  to cut this string, or at least to seal my misfortune, till I
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  have gnawded asunder. Lecoq, seeing how the case stood, made no reply,
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  but posted away as fast as he could, and told the farmer who
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  came and killed the fox. To aid the vicious is to become a partner
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  in their guilt. End of Section nine