The Talking Beasts | Page 5

their king. They found, however, that he thought it part of
his kingly prerogative to eat one of their number every day, and they
soon repented of their credulity in having let him in.

The Ant and the Fly
An Ant and a Fly one day disputed as to their respective merits. "Vile
creeping insect!" said the Fly to the Ant, "can you for a moment
compare yourself with me? I soar on the wing like a bird. I enter the
palaces of kings, and alight on the heads of princes, nay, of emperors,
and only quit them to adorn the yet more attractive brow of beauty.
Besides, I visit the altars of the gods. Not a sacrifice is offered but it is
first tasted by me. Every feast, too, is open to me. I eat and drink of the
best, instead of living for days on two or three grains of corn as you
do."
"All that is very fine," replied the Ant; "but listen to me. You boast of
your feasting, but you know that your diet is not always so choice, and
you are sometimes forced to eat what nothing would induce me to
touch. As for alighting on the heads of kings and emperors, you know
very well that whether you pitch on the head of an emperor or of an ass
(and it is as often on the one as the other), you are shaken off from both
with impatience. And, then, the 'altars of the gods,' indeed! There and
everywhere else you are looked upon as nothing but a nuisance. In the
winter, too, while I feed at my ease on the fruit of my toil, what more
common than to see your friends dying with cold, hunger, and fatigue?
I lose my time now in talking to you. Chattering will fill neither my bin
nor my cupboard."

The Frog Who Wished to Be as Big as an Ox
An Ox, grazing in a meadow, chanced to set his foot on a young Frog
and crushed him to death. His brothers and sisters, who were playing
near, at once ran to tell their mother what had happened.
"The monster that did it, mother, was such a size!" said they.
The mother, who was a vain old thing, thought that she could easily
make herself as large.

"Was it as big as this?" she asked, blowing and puffing herself out.
"Oh, much bigger than that," replied the young Frogs.
"As this, then?" cried she, puffing and blowing again with all her
might.
"Nay, mother," said they; "if you were to try till you burst yourself, you
could never be so big."
The silly old Frog then tried to puff herself out still more, and burst
herself indeed.

The Cat and the Mice
A certain house was overrun with mice. A Cat, discovering this, made
her way into it and began to catch and eat them one by one.
The Mice being continually devoured, kept themselves close in their
holes.
The Cat, no longer able to get at them, perceived that she must tempt
them forth by some device. For this purpose she jumped upon a peg,
and, suspending herself from it, pretended to be dead.
One of the Mice, peeping stealthily out, saw her, and said, "Ah, my
good madam, even though you should turn into a meal-bag, we would
not come near you."

The Cock and the Jewel
A brisk young Cock, scratching for something with which to entertain
his favourite Hens, happened to turn up a Jewel. Feeling quite sure that
it was something precious, but not knowing well what to do with it, he
addressed it with an air of affected wisdom, as follows: "You are a very
fine thing, no doubt, but you are not at all to my taste. For my part, I

would rather have one grain of dear delicious barley than all the Jewels
in the world."

The Man and the Lion
A Man and a Lion were discussing the relative strength of men and
lions in general, the Man contending that he and his fellows were
stronger than lions by reason of their greater intelligence.
"Come now with me," he cried to the beast, "and I will soon prove that
I am right." So he took him into the public gardens and showed him a
statue of Hercules overcoming the Lion. and tearing him to pieces.
"That is all very well," said the Lion, "but it proves nothing, for it was a
man who made the statue!"

The Discontented Ass
In the depth of winter a poor Ass once prayed heartily for the spring,
that he might exchange a cold lodging and a heartless truss of straw for
a little warm weather and a mouthful