Fables the Ant and the Chrysalis, Детальна інформація

“Better starve free than be a fat slave.”

The Dogs and the Fox

SOME DOGS, finding the skin of a lion, began to tear it in pieces  with their teeth.  A Fox, seeing them, said, “If this lion were  alive, you would soon find out that his claws were stronger than  your teeth.”   “It is easy to kick a man that is down.” The Eagle and the Fox  AN EAGLE and a Fox formed an intimate friendship and decided to  live near each other.  The Eagle built her nest in the branches  of a tall tree, while the Fox crept into the underwood and there  produced her young.  Not long after they had agreed upon this  plan, the Eagle, being in want of provision for her young ones,  swooped down while the Fox was out, seized upon one of the little  cubs, and feasted herself and her brood.  The Fox on her return,  discovered what had happened, but was less grieved for the death  of her young than for her inability to avenge them.  A just  retribution, however, quickly fell upon the Eagle.  While  hovering near an altar, on which some villagers were sacrificing  a goat, she suddenly seized a piece of the flesh, and carried it,  along with a burning cinder, to her nest.  A strong breeze soon  fanned the spark into a flame, and the eaglets, as yet unfledged  and helpless, were roasted in their nest and dropped down dead at  the bottom of the tree.  There, in the sight of the Eagle, the  Fox gobbled them up.

The Fox and the Grapes

One hot summer’s day a Fox was strolling through an orchard  till he came to a bunch of Grapes just ripening on a vine which  had been trained over a lofty branch.  “Just the thing to quench  my thirst,” quote he.  Drawing back a few paces, he took a run and  a jump, and just missed the bunch.  Turning round again with a  One, Two, Three, he jumped up, but with no greater success.  Again  and again he tried after the tempting morsel, but at last had to  give it up, and walked away with his nose in the air, saying: “I  am sure they are sour.”

“It is easy to despise what you cannot get.”

The Fox Who Had Lost His Tail

A FOX caught in a trap escaped, but in so doing lost his tail.   Thereafter, feeling his life a burden from the shame and ridicule  to which he was exposed, he schemed to convince all the other  Foxes that being tailless was much more attractive, thus making  up for his own deprivation.  He assembled a good many Foxes and  publicly advised them to cut off their tails, saying that they  would not only look much better without them, but that they would  get rid of the weight of the brush, which was a very great  inconvenience.  One of them interrupting him said, “If you had  not yourself lost your tail, my friend, you would not thus  counsel us.”

The Hares and the Frogs

The Hares were so persecuted by the other beasts, they did not  know where to go.  As soon as they saw a single animal approach  them, off they used to run.  One day they saw a troop of wild  Horses stampeding about, and in quite a panic all the Hares  scuttled off to a lake hard by, determined to drown themselves  rather than live in such a continual state of fear.  But just as  they got near the bank of the lake, a troop of Frogs, frightened  in their turn by the approach of the Hares scuttled off, and  jumped into the water.  “Truly,” said one of the Hares, “things  are not so bad as they seem: “There is always someone worse off than yourself.”

The Wolf and the Kid

A Kid was perched up on the top of a house, and looking down  saw a Wolf passing under him.  Immediately he began to revile and  attack his enemy.  “Murderer and thief,” he cried, “what do you  here near honest folks’ houses?  How dare you make an appearance  where your vile deeds are known?” “Curse away, my young friend,” said the Wolf.

“It is easy to be brave from a safe distance.”

The Lion and the Eagle

AN EAGLE stayed his flight and entreated a Lion to make an  alliance with him to their mutual advantage.  The Lion replied,  “I have no objection, but you must excuse me for requiring you to  find surety for your good faith, for how can I trust anyone as a  friend who is able to fly away from his bargain whenever he  pleases?’ 

“Try before you trust.”

The Lion and the Mouse

Once when a Lion was asleep a little Mouse began running up  and down upon him; this soon wakened the Lion, who placed his huge  paw upon him, and opened his big jaws to swallow him.  “Pardon, O  King,” cried the little Mouse: “forgive me this time, I shall  never forget it: who knows but what I may be able to do you a turn  some of these days?”  The Lion was so tickled at the idea of the  Mouse being able to help him, that he lifted up his paw and let  him go.  Some time after the Lion was caught in a trap, and the  hunters who desired to carry him alive to the King, tied him to a  tree while they went in search of a wagon to carry him on. Just  then the little Mouse happened to pass by, and seeing the sad  plight in which the Lion was, went up to him and soon gnawed away  the ropes that bound the King of the Beasts. “Was I not right?”  said the little mouse, after the lion had gotten out for a freedom.

“Little friends may prove great friends.”

The Lion in Love

A LION demanded the daughter of a woodcutter in marriage.  The  Father, unwilling to grant, and yet afraid to refuse his request,  hit upon this expedient to rid himself of his importunities.  He  expressed his willingness to accept the Lion as the suitor of his  daughter on one condition:  that he should allow him to extract  his teeth, and cut off his claws, as his daughter was fearfully  afraid of both.  The Lion cheerfully assented to the proposal.   But when the toothless, clawless Lion returned to repeat his  request, the Woodman, no longer afraid, set upon him with his  club, and drove him away into the forest.

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.”

The Monkey and the Dolphin

A SAILOR, bound on a long voyage, took with him a Monkey to amuse  him while on shipboard.  As he sailed off the coast of Greece, a  violent tempest arose in which the ship was wrecked and he, his  Monkey, and all the crew were obliged to swim for their lives.  A  Dolphin saw the Monkey contending with the waves, and supposing  him to be a man (whom he is always said to befriend), came and  placed himself under him, to convey him on his back in safety to  the shore.  When the Dolphin arrived with his burden in sight of  land not far from Athens, he asked the Monkey if he were an  Athenian.  The latter replied that he was, and that he was  descended from one of the most noble families in that city.  The  Dolphin then inquired if he knew the Piraeus (the famous harbor  of Athens).  Supposing that a man was meant, the Monkey answered  that he knew him very well and that he was an intimate friend.   The Dolphin, indignant at these falsehoods, dipped the Monkey  under the water and drowned him.

The Monkeys and Their Mother

THE MONKEY, it is said, has two young ones at each birth.  The  Mother fondles one and nurtures it with the greatest affection  and care, but hates and neglects the other.  It happened once  that the young one which was caressed and loved was smothered by  the too great affection of the Mother, while the despised one was  nurtured and reared in spite of the neglect to which it was  exposed. 

“The best intentions will not always ensure success.”

The Nurse and the Wolf

“Be quiet now,” said an old Nurse to a child sitting on her  lap.  “If you make that noise again I will throw you to the Wolf.” Now it chanced that a Wolf was passing close under the window as this was said.  So he crouched down by the side of the house and waited.  “I am in good luck to-day,” thought he.  “It is sure to cry soon, and a daintier morsel I haven’t had for many a long day.”  So he waited, and he waited, and he waited, till at last the child began to cry, and the Wolf came forward before the window, and looked up to the Nurse, wagging his tail.  But all the Nurse did was to shut down the window and call for help, and the dogs of the house came rushing out.  “Ah,” said the Wolf as he galloped away,