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Aesop’s Fables

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Aesop’s Fables

The Cock and the Pearl

A cock was once strutting up and down the farmyard

among the hens when suddenly he espied something

shinning amid the straw. ‘Ho! ho!’ quoth he, ‘that’s for

me,’ and soon rooted it out from beneath the straw. What

did it turn out to be but a Pearl that by some chance had

been lost in the yard? ‘You may be a treasure,’ quoth

Master Cock, ‘to men that prize you, but for me I would

rather have a single barley-corn than a peck of pearls.’

Precious things are for those that can prize them.

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The Wolf and the Lamb

Once upon a time a Wolf was lapping at a spring on a

hillside, when, looking up, what should he see but a Lamb

just beginning to drink a little lower down. ‘There’s my

supper,’ thought he, ‘if only I can find some excuse to

seize it.’ Then he called out to the Lamb, ‘How dare you

muddle the water from which I am drinking?’

‘Nay, master, nay,’ said Lambikin; ‘if the water be

muddy up there, I cannot be the cause of it, for it runs

down from you to me.’

‘Well, then,’ said the Wolf, ‘why did you call me bad

names this time last year?’

‘That cannot be,’ said the Lamb; ‘I am only six months

old.’

‘I don’t care,’ snarled the Wolf; ‘if it was not you it was

your father;’ and with that he rushed upon the poor little

Lamb and .WARRA WARRA WARRA WARRA

WARRA .ate her all up. But before she died she gasped

out .’Any excuse will serve a tyrant.’

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Aesop’s Fables

The Dog and the Shadow

It happened that a Dog had got a piece of meat and was

carrying it home in his mouth to eat it in peace. Now on

his way home he had to cross a plank lying across a

running brook. As he crossed, he looked down and saw

his own shadow reflected in the water beneath. Thinking

it was another dog with another piece of meat, he made

up his mind to have that also. So he made a snap at the

shadow in the water, but as he opened his mouth the

piece of meat fell out, dropped into the water and was

never seen more.

Beware lest you lose the substance by grasping at the

shadow.

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Aesop’s Fables

The Lion’s Share

The Lion went once a-hunting along with the Fox, the

Jackal, and the Wolf. They hunted and they hunted till at

last they surprised a Stag, and soon took its life. Then

came the question how the spoil should be divided.

‘Quarter me this Stag,’ roared the Lion; so the other

animals skinned it and cut it into four parts. Then the Lion

took his stand in front of the carcass and pronounced

judgment: The first quarter is for me in my capacity as

King of Beasts; the second is mine as arbiter; another share

comes to me for my part in the chase; and as for the fourth

quarter, well, as for that, I should like to see which of you

will dare to lay a paw upon it.’

‘Humph,’ grumbled the Fox as he walked away with

his tail between his legs; but he spoke in a low growl

.’You may share the labours of the great, but you will not

share the spoil.’

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