Aesop's Fables (19 page)

A
wild ass, who was wandering idly about, one day came upon a pack ass lying at full length in a sunny spot and thoroughly enjoying himself. Going up to him, he said, “What a lucky beast you are! Your sleek coat shows how well you live. How I envy you!” Not long after the wild ass saw his acquaintance again, but this time he was carrying a heavy load, and his driver was following behind and beating him with a thick stick. “Ah, my friend,” said the wild ass, “I don’t envy you anymore; for I see you pay dear for your comforts.”

 

Advantages that are dearly bought are doubtful blessings.

A
gardener had an ass which had a very hard time of it, what with scanty food, heavy loads, and constant beating. The ass therefore begged Jupiter to take him away from the gardener and hand him over to another master. So Jupiter sent Mercury to the gardener to bid him sell the ass to a potter, which he did. But the ass was as discontented as ever, for he had to work harder than before; so he begged Jupiter for relief a second time, and Jupiter very obligingly arranged that he should be sold to a tanner. But when the ass saw what his new master’s trade was, he cried in despair, “Why wasn’t I content to serve either of my former masters, hard as I had to work and badly as I was treated? For they would have buried me decently, but now I shall come in the end to the tanning vat.”

 

Servants don’t know a good master till they have served a worse.

A
wild ass saw a pack ass, jogging along under a heavy load, and taunted him with the condition of slavery in which he lived, in these words: “What a vile lot is yours compared with mine! I am free as the air, and never do a stroke of work; and, as for fodder, I have only to go to the hills and there I find far more than enough for my needs. But you! You depend on your master for food, and he makes you carry heavy loads every day and beats you unmercifully.” At that moment a lion appeared on the scene, and made no attempt to molest the pack ass, owing to the presence of the driver; but he fell upon the wild ass, who had no one to protect him, and without more ado made a meal of him.

 

It is no use being your own master unless you can stand up for yourself.

A
nts were once men and made their living by tilling the soil. But, not content with the results of their own work, they were always casting longing eyes upon the crops and fruits of their neighbors, which they stole, whenever they got the chance, and added to their own store. At last their covetousness made Jupiter so angry that he changed them into ants. But, though their forms were changed, their nature remained the same; and so, to this day, they go about among the cornfields and gather the fruits of others’ labor, and store them up for their own use.

 

You may punish a thief, but his bent remains.

T
wo frogs lived together in a marsh. But one hot summer the marsh dried up, and they left it to look for another place to live in, for frogs like damp places if they can get them. By and by they came to a deep well, and one of them looked down into it and said to the other, “This looks a nice cool place. Let us jump in and settle here.” But the other, who had a wiser head on his shoulders, replied, “Not so fast, my friend. Supposing this well dried up like the marsh, how should we get out again?”

 

Think twice before you act.

A
crab once left the seashore and went and settled in a meadow some way inland, which looked very nice and green and seemed likely to be a good place to feed in. But a hungry fox came along and spied the crab and caught him. Just as he was going to be eaten up, the crab said, “This is just what I deserve, for I had no business to leave my natural home by the sea and settle here as though I belonged to the land.”

 

Be content with your lot.

 

A
grasshopper sat chirping in the branches of a tree. A fox heard her, and, thinking what a dainty morsel she would . make, he tried to get her down by a trick. Standing below in full view of her, he praised her song in the most flattering terms, and begged her to descend, saying he would like to make the acquaintance of the owner of so beautiful a voice. But she was not to be taken in, and replied, “You are very much mistaken, my dear sir, if you imagine I am going to come down. I keep well out of the way of you and your kind ever since the day when I saw numbers of grasshoppers’ wings strewn about the entrance to a fox’s earth.”

A
farmer had just sown a field of wheat, and was keeping a careful watch over it, for numbers of rooks and starlings kept continually settling on it and eating up the grain. Along with him went his boy, carrying a sling; and whenever the farmer asked for the sling the starlings understood what he said and warned the rooks, and they were off in a moment. So the farmer hit on a trick. “My lad,” said he, “we must get the better of these birds somehow. After this, when I want the sling, I won’t say ‘sling,’ but just ‘humph!’ and you must then hand me the sling quickly.”

Presently back came the whole flock. “Humph!” said the farmer; but the starlings took no notice, and he had time to sling several stones among them, hitting one on the head, another in the legs, and another in the wing, before they got out of range. As they made all haste away they met some cranes, who asked them what the matter was. “Matter?” said one of the rooks. “It’s those rascals, men, that are the matter. Don’t you go near them. They have a way of saying one thing and meaning another, which has just been the death of several of our poor friends.”

A
n ass and a dog were on their travels together, and, as they went along, they found a sealed packet lying on the ground. The ass picked it up, broke the seal, and found it contained some writing, which he proceeded to read out aloud to the dog. As he read on, it turned out to be all about grass and barley and hay—in short, all the kinds of fodder that asses are fond of. The dog was a good deal bored with listening to all this, till at last his impatience got the better of him, and he cried, “Just skip a few pages, friend, and see if there isn’t something about meat and bones.” The ass glanced all through the packet, but found nothing of the sort, and said so. Then the dog said in disgust, “Oh, throw it away, do. What’s the good of a thing like that?”

A
certain man put an image on the back of his ass to take it to one of the temples of the town. As they went along the road all the people they met uncovered and bowed their heads out of reverence for the image; but the ass thought they were doing it out of respect for himself, and began to give himself airs accordingly. At last he became so conceited that he imagined he could do as he liked, and, by way of protest against the load he was carrying, he came to a full stop and flatly declined to proceed any further. His driver, finding him so obstinate, hit him hard and long with his stick, saying the while, “Oh, you dunderheaded idiot, do you suppose it’s come to this, that men pay worship to an ass?”

 

Rude shocks await those who take to themselves the credit that is due to others.

A
n Athenian and a Theban were on the road together and passed the time in conversation, as is the way of travelers. After discussing a variety of subjects they began to talk about heroes, a topic that tends to be more fertile than edifying. Each of them was lavish in his praises of the heroes of his own city, until eventually the Theban asserted that Hercules was the greatest hero who had ever lived on earth, and now occupied a foremost place among the gods; while the Athenian insisted that Theseus was far superior, for his fortune had been in every way supremely blessed, whereas Hercules had at one time been forced to act as a servant. And he gained his point, for he was a very glib fellow, like all Athenians ; so that the Theban, who was no match for him in talking, cried at last in some disgust, “All right, have your way. I only hope that when our heroes are angry with us, Athens may suffer from the anger of Hercules, and Thebes only from that of Theseus.”

 

A
goatherd was one day gathering his flock to return to the fold, when one of his goats strayed and refused to join the . rest. He tried for a long time to get her to return by calling and whistling to her, but the goat took no notice of him at all; so at last he threw a stone at her and broke one of her horns. In dismay, he begged her not to tell his master. But she replied, “You silly fellow, my horn would cry aloud even if I held my tongue.”

 

It’s no use trying to hide what can’t be hidden.

O
nce upon a time the sheep complained to the shepherd about the difference in his treatment of themselves and his dog. “Your conduct,” said they, “is very strange and, we think, very unfair. We provide you with wool and lambs and milk, and you give us nothing but grass, and even that we have to find for ourselves. But you get nothing at all from the dog, and yet you feed him with tidbits from your own table.” Their remarks were overheard by the dog, who spoke up at once and said, “Yes, and quite right, too. Where would you be if it wasn’t for me? Thieves would steal you! Wolves would eat you! Indeed, if I didn’t keep constant watch over you, you would be too terrified even to graze!” The sheep were obliged to acknowledge that he spoke the truth, and never again made a grievance of the regard in which he was held by his master.

A
shepherd found a wolfs cub straying in the pastures, and took him home and reared him along with his dogs. When the cub grew to his full size, if ever a wolf stole a sheep from the flock, he used to join the dogs in hunting him down. It sometimes happened that the dogs failed to come up with the thief, and, abandoning the pursuit, returned home. The wolf would on such occasions continue the chase by himself, and when he overtook the culprit, would stop and share the feast with him, and then return to the shepherd. But if some time passed without a sheep being carried off by the wolves, he would steal one himself and share his plunder with the dogs. The shepherd’s suspicions were aroused, and one day he caught him in the act; and, fastening a rope round his neck, hung him on the nearest tree.

 

What’s bred in the bone is sure to come out in the flesh.

T
he lion, for all his size and strength and his sharp teeth and claws, is a coward in one thing. He can’t bear the sound of a cock crowing, and runs away whenever he hears it. He complained bitterly to Jupiter for making him like that, but Jupiter said it wasn’t his fault. He had done the best he could for him, and, considering this was his only failing, he ought to be well content. The lion, however, wouldn’t be comforted, and was so ashamed of his timidity that he wished he might die. In this state of mind he met the elephant and had a talk with him. He noticed that the great beast cocked up his ears all the time, as if he were listening for something, and he asked him why he did so. Just then a gnat came humming by, and the elephant said, “Do you see that wretched little buzzing insect? I’m terribly afraid of its getting into my ear. If it once gets in, I’m dead and done for.” The lion’s spirits rose at once when he heard this. “For,” he said to himself, “if the elephant, huge as he is, is afraid of a gnat, I needn’t be so much ashamed of being afraid of a cock, who is ten thousand times bigger than a gnat.”