Journeys Through Bookland, Volume 2 | Page 3

called sharply to Aesop:
"Did I not tell you, sirrah, to provide the choicest dainties that money
could procure?"
"And what excels the tongue?" replied Aesop. "It is the great channel
of learning and philosophy. By this noble organ everything wise and
good is accomplished."
The company applauded Aesop's wit, and good humor was restored.

"Well," said Xanthus to the guests, "pray do me the favor of dining
with me again to-morrow. And if this is your best," continued he
turning to Aesop, "pray, to-morrow let us have some of the worst meat
you can find."
The next day, when dinner-time came, the guests were assembled.
Great was their astonishment and great the anger of Xanthus at finding
that again nothing but tongue was put upon the table.
"How, sir," said Xanthus, "should tongues be the best of meat one day,
and the worst another?"
"What," replied Aesop, "can be worse than the tongue? What
wickedness is there under the sun that it has not a part in? Treasons,
violence, injustice, and fraud are debated and resolved upon by the
tongue. It is the ruin of empires, of cities, and of private friendships."
* * * * *
At another time Xanthus very foolishly bet with a scholar that he could
drink the sea dry. Alarmed, he consulted Aesop.
"To perform your wager," said Aesop, "you know is impossible, but I
will show you how to evade it."
They accordingly met the scholar, and went with him and a great
number of people to the seashore, where Aesop had provided a table
with several large glasses upon it, and men who stood around with
ladles with which to fill the glasses.
Xanthus, instructed by Aesop, gravely took his seat at the table. The
beholders looked on with astonishment, thinking that he must surely
have lost his senses.
"My agreement," said he, turning to the scholar, "is to drink up the sea.
I said nothing of the rivers and streams that are everywhere flowing
into it. Stop up these, and I will proceed to fulfill my engagement."
* * * * *
It is said that at one time when Xanthus started out on a long journey,
he ordered his servants to get all his things together and put them up
into bundles so that they could carry them.
When everything had been neatly tied up, Aesop went to his master and
begged for the lightest bundle. Wishing to please his favorite slave, the
master told Aesop to choose for himself the one he preferred to carry.
Looking them all over, he picked up the basket of bread and started off
with it on the journey. The other servants laughed at his foolishness, for

that basket was the heaviest of all.
When dinner-time came, Aesop was very tired, for he had had a
difficult time to carry his load for the last few hours. When they had
rested, however, they took bread from the basket, each taking an equal
share. Half the bread was eaten at this one meal, and when supper-time
came the rest of it disappeared.
For the whole remainder of the journey, which ran far into the night
and was over rough roads, up and down hills, Aesop had nothing to
carry, while the loads of the other servants grew heavier and heavier
with every step.
The people of the neighborhood in which Aesop was a slave one day
observed him attentively looking over some poultry in a pen that was
near the roadside; and those idlers, who spent more time in prying into
other people's affairs than in adjusting their own, asked why he
bestowed his attention on those animals.
"I am surprised," replied Aesop, "to see how mankind imitate this
foolish animal."
"In what?" asked the neighbors.
"Why, in crowing so well and scratching so poorly," rejoined Aesop.
[Illustration: "AESOP" Painting by Valasquez, Madrid ]
Fables, you know, are short stories, usually about animals and things,
which are made to talk like human beings. Fables are so bright and
interesting in themselves that both children and grown-ups like to read
them. Children see first the story, and bye and bye, after they have
thought more about it and have grown older, they see how much
wisdom there is in the fables.
For an example, there is the fable of the crab and its mother. They were
strolling along the sand together when the mother said, "Child, you are
not walking gracefully. You should walk straight forward, without
twisting from side to side."
"Pray, mother," said the young one, "if you will set the example, I will
follow it."
Perhaps children will think the little crab was not very respectful, but
the lesson is plain that it is always easier to give good advice than it is
to follow