A Fisherman and His Bagpipe

A Fisherman and His Bagpipe

By

Aesop

A Fisherman skilled in music took his flute and his nets to the seashore. Standing on a projecting rock, he played several tunes in the hope that the fish, attracted by his melody, would of their own accord dance into his net, which he had placed below. At last, having long waited in vain, he laid aside his flute, and casting his net into the sea, made an excellent haul of fish. When he saw them leaping about in the net upon the rock he said: “O you most perverse creatures, when I piped you would not dance, but now that I have ceased you do so merrily.” There are certain rules and methods for the doing of all things in this world; and therefore let every man stick to the business he understands, and was brought up to, without making one profession interfere with another.

((Stick to business you know.))

Two Travelers and The Axe (Purse)

Two Travelers and The Axe (Purse)

By

Aesop

Two men were traveling in company along the road when one of them picked up a well-filled purse.

“How lucky I am!” he said. “I have found a purse. Judging by its weight it must be full of gold.”

“Do not say ‘I have found a purse,'” said his companion. “Say rather ‘we have found a purse’ and ‘how lucky we are.’ Travelers ought to share alike the fortunes or misfortunes of the road.”

“No, no,” replied the other angrily. “I found it and I am going to keep it.”

Just then they heard a shout of “Stop, thief!” and looking around, saw a mob of people armed with clubs coming down the road.

The man who had found the purse fell into a panic.

“We are lost if they find the purse on us,” he cried.

“No, no,” replied the other, “You would not say ‘we’ before, so now stick to your ‘I’. Say ‘I am lost.'”

((He who shares the danger ought to share the prize.))

The Wolf Turned Shepherd

The Wolf Turned Shepherd

By

Aesop

A wolf, finding that the sheep were so afraid of him that he could not get near them, disguised himself in the dress of a shepherd, and thus attired approached the flock. As he came near, he found the shepherd fast asleep. As the sheep did not run away, he resolved to imitate the voice of the shepherd. In trying to do so, he only howled, and awoke the shepherd. As he could not run away, he was soon killed.

((Those who attempt to act in disguise are apt to overdo it.)

The Wolf and The Shepherds

The Wolf and The Shepherds

By

Aesop

A Wolf, lurking near the Shepherd’s hut, saw the Shepherd and his family feasting on a roasted lamb.

“Aha!” he muttered. “What a great shouting and running about there would have been, had they caught me at just the very thing they are doing with so much enjoyment!”

((Men often condemn others for what they see no wrong in doing themselves.))

The Wolf and the Lamb

The Wolf and the Lamb

By

Aesop

A stray Lamb stood drinking early one morning on the bank of a woodland stream. That very same morning a hungry Wolf came by farther up the stream, hunting for something to eat. He soon got his eyes on the Lamb. As a rule Mr. Wolf snapped up such delicious morsels without making any bones about it, but this Lamb looked so very helpless and innocent that the Wolf felt he ought to have some kind of an excuse for taking its life.

“How dare you paddle around in my stream and stir up all the mud!” he shouted fiercely. “You deserve to be punished severely for your rashness!”

“But, your highness,” replied the trembling Lamb, “do not be angry! I cannot possibly muddy the water you are drinking up there. Remember, you are upstream and I am downstream.”

“You do muddy it!” retorted the Wolf savagely. “And besides, I have heard that you told lies about me last year!”

“How could I have done so?” pleaded the Lamb. “I wasn’t born until this year.”

“If it wasn’t you, it was your brother!”

“I have no brothers.”

“Well, then,” snarled the Wolf, “It was someone in your family anyway. But no matter who it was, I do not intend to be talked out of my breakfast.”

And without more words the Wolf seized the poor Lamb and carried her off to the forest.

((Tyrants need no excuse.))

The Wolf and The Crane

The Wolf and The Crane

By

Aesop

A Wolf had been feasting too greedily, and a bone had stuck crosswise in his throat. He could get it neither up nor down, and of course he could not eat a thing. Naturally that was an awful state of affairs for a greedy Wolf.

So away he hurried to the Crane. He was sure that she, with her long neck and bill, would easily be able to reach the bone and pull it out.

"I will reward you very handsomely," said the Wolf, "if you pull that bone out for me."

The Crane, as you can imagine, was very uneasy about putting her head in a Wolf's throat. But she was grasping in nature, so she did what the Wolf asked her to do.

When the Wolf felt that the bone was gone, he started to walk away.

"But what about my reward!" called the Crane anxiously.

"What!" snarled the Wolf, whirling around. "Haven't you got it? Isn't it enough that I let you take your head out of my mouth without snapping it off?"

((When working for a tyrant, feel lucky to escape alive.))

The Two Pots

The Two Pots

By

Aesop

Two Pots, one of brass and the other of clay, stood together on the hearthstone. One day the Brass Pot proposed to the Earthen Pot that they go out into the world together. But the Earthen Pot excused himself, saying that it would be wiser for him to stay in the corner by the fire.

“It would take so little to break me,” he said. “You know how fragile I am. The least shock is sure to shatter me!”

“Don’t let that keep you at home,” urged the Brass Pot. “I shall take very good care of you. If we should happen to meet anything hard I will step between and save you.”

So the Earthen Pot at last consented, and the two set out side by side, jolting along on three stubby legs first to this side, then to that, and bumping into each other at every step.

The Earthen Pot could not survive that sort of companionship very long. They had not gone ten paces before the Earthen Pot cracked, and at the next jolt he flew into a thousand pieces.

((Equals make the best friends.))

The Two Goats

The Two Goats

By

Aesop

Two Goats, frisking gayly on the rocky steeps of a mountain valley, chanced to meet, one on each side of a deep chasm through which poured a mighty mountain torrent. The trunk of a fallen tree formed the only means of crossing the chasm, and on this not even two squirrels could have passed each other in safety. The narrow path would have made the bravest tremble. Not so our Goats. Their pride would not permit either to stand aside for the other.

One set her foot on the log. The other did likewise. In the middle they met horn to horn. Neither would give way, and so they both fell, to be swept away by the roaring torrent below.

((Sometimes giving way is better than stubbornness.))

The Two Frogs

The Two Frogs

By

Aesop

Two frogs dwelt in the same pool. When the pool dried up under the summer’s heat, they left it and set out together for another home. As they went along they chanced to pass a deep well, amply supplied with water, and when they saw it, one of the Frogs said to the other, “Let us descend and make our abode in this well: it will furnish us with shelter and food.” The other replied with greater caution, “But suppose the water should fail us. How can we get out again from so great a depth?’

((Look before you leap.))

The Trees and the Axe

The Trees and the Axe

By

Aesop

A Man came into a Wood one day with an axe in his hand, and begged all the Trees to give him a small branch which he wanted for a particular purpose. The Trees were good-natured and gave him one of their branches. What did the Man do but fix it into the axe head, and soon set to work cutting down tree after tree. Then the Trees saw how foolish they had been in giving their enemy the means of destroying themselves.

((Nothing bothers a man more than to see he has aided his own undoing.))

The Tree and The Reed

The Tree and The Reed

By

Aesop

A Giant Oak stood near a brook in which grew some slender Reeds. When the wind blew, the great Oak stood proudly upright with its hundred arms uplifted to the sky. But the Reeds bowed low in the wind and sang a sad and mournful song.

“You have reason to complain,” said the Oak. “The slightest breeze that ruffles the surface of the water makes you bow your heads, while I, the mighty Oak, stand upright and firm before the howling tempest.”

“Do not worry about us,” replied the Reeds. “The winds do not harm us. We bow before them and so we do not break. You, in all your pride and strength, have so far resisted their blows. But the end is coming.”

As the Reeds spoke a great hurricane rushed out of the north. The Oak stood proudly and fought against the storm, while the yielding Reeds bowed low. The wind redoubled in fury, and all at once the great tree fell, torn up by the roots, and lay among the pitying Reeds.

((Obscurity often brings safety.))

The Traveler and His Dog

The Traveler and His Dog

By

Aesop

A Traveler about to set out on a journey saw his Dog stand at the door stretching himself. He asked him sharply: “Why do you stand there gaping? Everything is ready but you, so come with me instantly.” The Dog, wagging his tail, replied: “O, master! I am quite ready; it is you for whom I am waiting.”

((The slacker often blames delay on the more active.))

The Town Mouse and The Country Mouse

The Town Mouse and The Country Mouse

By

Aesop

A Town Mouse once visited a relative who lived in the country. For lunch the Country Mouse served wheat stalks, roots, and acorns, with a dash of cold water for drink. The Town Mouse ate very sparingly, nibbling a little of this and a little of that, and by her manner making it very plain that she ate the simple food only to be polite.

After the meal the friends had a long talk, or rather the Town Mouse talked about her life in the city while the Country Mouse listened. They then went to bed in a cozy nest in the hedgerow and slept in quiet and comfort until morning. In her sleep the Country Mouse dreamed she was a Town Mouse with all the luxuries and delights of city life that her friend had described for her. So the next day when the Town Mouse asked the Country Mouse to go home with her to the city, she gladly said yes.

When they reached the mansion in which the Town Mouse lived, they found on the table in the dining room the leavings of a very fine banquet. There were sweetmeats and jellies, pastries, delicious cheeses, indeed, the most tempting foods that a Mouse can imagine. But just as the Country Mouse was about to nibble a dainty bit of pastry, she heard a Cat mew loudly and scratch at the door. In great fear the Mice scurried to a hiding place, where they lay quite still for a long time, hardly daring to breathe. When at last they ventured back to the feast, the door opened suddenly and in came the servants to clear the table, followed by the House Dog.

The Country Mouse stopped in the Town Mouse's den only long enough to pick up her carpet bag and umbrella.

"You may have luxuries and dainties that I have not," she said as she hurried away, "but I prefer my plain food and simple life in the country with the peace and security that go with it."

((Better beans and bacon in peace than cakes and ale in fear.))

The Tortoise and the Hare

The Tortoise and the Hare

By

Aesop

One day a hare was bragging about how fast he could run. He bragged and bragged and even laughed at the tortoise, who was so slow. The tortoise stretched out his long neck and challenged the hare to a race, which, of course, made the hare laugh.

"My, my, what a joke!" thought the hare. 

"A race, indeed, a race. Oh! what fun! My, my! a race, of course, Mr. Tortoise, we shall race!" said the hare.

The forest animals met and mapped out the course. The race begun, and the hare, being such a swift runner, soon left the tortoise far behind. About halfway through the course, it occurred to the hare that he had plenty of time to beat the slow trodden tortoise.

"Oh, my!" thought the hare, "I have plenty of time to play in the meadow here."

And so he did.

After the hare finished playing, he decided that he had time to take a little nap. 

"I have plenty of time to beat that tortoise," he thought. And he cuddle up against a tree and dozed.

The tortoise, in the meantime, continued to plod on, albeit, it ever so slowly. He never stopped, but took one good step after another.

The hare finally woke from his nap. "Time to get going," he thought. And off he went faster than he had ever run before! He dashed as quickly as anyone ever could up to the finish line, where he met the tortoise, who was patiently awaiting his arrival.

((Slow and steady wins the race.))

The Tortoise and The Eagle

The Tortoise and The Eagle

By

Aesop

The Tortoise, you know, carries his house on his back. No matter how hard he tries, he cannot leave home. They say that Jupiter punished him so, because he was such a lazy stay-at-home that he would not go to Jupiter’s wedding, even when especially invited.

After many years, Tortoise began to wish he had gone to that wedding. When he saw how gaily the birds flew about and how the Hare and the Chipmunk and all the other animals ran nimbly by, always eager to see everything there was to be seen, the Tortoise felt very sad and discontented. He wanted to see the world too, and there he was with a house on his back and little short legs that could hardly drag him along.

One day he met a pair of Ducks and told them all his trouble.

“We can help you to see the world,” said the Ducks. “Take hold of this stick with your teeth and we will carry you far up in the air where you can see the whole countryside. But keep quiet or you will be sorry.”

The Tortoise was very glad indeed. He seized the stick firmly with his teeth, the two Ducks took hold of it one at each end, and away they sailed up toward the clouds.

Just then a Crow flew by. He was very much astonished at the strange sight and cried:

“This must surely be the King of Tortoises!”

“Why certainly——” began the Tortoise.

But as he opened his mouth to say these foolish words he lost his hold on the stick, and down he fell to the ground, where he was dashed to pieces on a rock.

((Never put yourself in your enemy’s clutches))

The Toad and The May-Fly

The Toad and The May-Fly

By

Aesop

As some workmen were digging marble in a mountain, they came upon a Toad of enormous size in the midst of a solid rock. They were very much surprised at so uncommon an appearance, and the more they considered the circumstances of it, the more their wonder increased. It was hard to conceive by what means this creature had preserved life and received nourishment in so narrow a prison, and still more difficult to account for his birth and existence in a place so totally inaccessible to all his species. They could come to no other conclusion but that he was formed together with the rock in which he had been bred, and was coeval with the mountain itself. While they were pursuing these speculations, the Toad sat swelling and bloating, till he was ready to burst with pride and self-importance, to which at last he thus gave vent: “Yes,” said he, “you behold in me a specimen of the antediluvian race of animals. I was begotten before the Flood; and who is there among the present upstart race of mortals that shall dare to contend with me in nobility of birth or dignity of character?” A May-fly, sprung that morning from the river, as he was flying about from place to place, chanced to be present, and observed all that passed with great attention and curiosity. “Vain boaster,” said he, “what foundation hast thou for pride, either in thy descent, merely because it is ancient, or thy life, because it has been long? What good qualities hast thou received from thy ancestors? Insignificant even to thyself, as well as useless to others, thou art almost as insensible as the block in which thou wast bred. Even I, that had my birth only from the scum of the neighbouring river, at the rising of this day’s sun, and who shall die at its setting, have more reason to applaud my condition than thou hast to be proud of thine. I have enjoyed the warmth of the sun, the light of day, and the purity of the air: I have flown from stream to stream, from tree to tree, and from the plain to the mountain. I have provided for posterity, and I shall leave behind me a numerous offspring to people the next age of to-morrow; in short, I have fulfilled all the ends of my being, and I have been happy. My whole life, ’tis true, is but of twelve hours, but even one hour of it is to be preferred to a thousand years of mere existence which have been spent, like thine, ignorance, sloth, and stupidity.”

((Size and age don’t indicate importance.))

The Stag at the Pool

The Stag at the Pool

By

Aesop

The Hart was once drinking from a pool and admiring the noble figure he made there. “Ah,” said he, “where can you see such noble horns as these, with such antlers! I wish I had legs more worthy to bear such a noble crown; it is a pity they are so slim and slight.” At that moment a Hunter approached and sent an arrow whistling after him. Away bounded the Hart, and soon, by the aid of his nimble legs, was nearly out of sight of the Hunter; but not noticing where he was going, he passed under some trees with branches growing low down in which his antlers were caught, so that the Hunter had time to come up. “Alas! alas!” cried the Hart: “We often despise what is most useful to us.”

((We often despise what is most useful to us.))

The Snail and The Drone

The Snail and The Drone

By

Aesop

It chanced that a drone observed a snail labouring his tedious journey with tardy pace: “I marvel,” said the drone, “how you have patience to drag on at that slow rate, whilst I can pass swiftly through the air, and go miles to your inches.”

“It is very true,” answered the snail, “you certainly do make a thousand times the speed that I can; but remember, that your swift journey leaves no mark or memorial behind, to show that you ever had existence; while I, though slow, leave behind me a shining record of my path.”

((While alive, live well.))

The Snail and The Butterfly

The Snail and The Butterfly

By

Aesop

A gay Butterfly, whose spangled wings displayed all the varied colours of the rainbow, chanced in his airy voyage to light on a violet, where he was quickly espied by the protruding eyes of a crawling Snail, one filled with all the pride of independence; who, like Diogenes of old, carried his house upon his back, scorning to be helped by any. This cynic of dingy hue, approaching in a slow and solemn march, thus accosted the full-dressed little beau: “Thou tawdry, insignificant, painted, insect, hast thou no better employment than to flutter about in sunshine all the live-long day, only to show to vain mortals like thyself, thy gaudy embroidery? Let me tell thee, between ourselves, that I hold in much more esteem the solemn dignity of the dingy brown in which I am myself attired, than all the frivolous variety by which thou art characterized.”—”Conceited, short-sighted, pretending philosopher,” retorted the Butterfly, “know that you have been despising in me those qualities with which great nature has endowed me, and such as were not in my own power to bestow upon myself. Therefore I cannot but be thankful for them, and value myself the more, as one of Nature’s favourites in being thus adorned. Do we not evidently perceive the bent of Providence, shown through all its works, in that ample display of rich and varied colouring? How are all the feathered kind to be admired for their rich plumage, from the spangled Peacock to the gilded Humming Bird! See, how the innumerable insect tribe are all bedecked! The fruits of the earth also have all their varieties of bloom! The vegetable creation is as splendid as it is unbounded, clearly to be seen by every eye that has ever beheld a flower-garden in all its beauty! Indeed, all the elements conspire to deck with gaiety of hues the splendid mass, each contributing its ample portion. The sea teems with its pearls, and mother-of-pearls, whilst the inhabitants of the watery deep play around in scaly vestments of silver and of gold.

“The earth from its bowels delivers up its dazzling gems, and shining ores. And the air and fire which compose the heavens, display the vivid rainbow, and the glory of the rising and the setting sun. And permit me in return to whisper a secret in your ear:—it is such as yourself that serve as a foil to that splendour, which is Nature’s favourite garb.”

((Don’t reject the ornamental when given by nature.))

The Dog and His Master’s Dinner

The Dog and His Master’s Dinner

By

Aesop

A Dog had learned to carry his master's dinner to him every day. He was very faithful to his duty, though the smell of the good things in the basket tempted him.

The Dogs in the neighborhood noticed him carrying the basket and soon discovered what was in it. They made several attempts to steal it from him. But he always guarded it faithfully.

Then one day all the Dogs in the neighborhood got together and met him on his way with the basket. The Dog tried to run away from them. But at last he stopped to argue.

That was his mistake. They soon made him feel so ridiculous that he dropped the basket and seized a large piece of roast meat intended for his master's dinner.

"Very well," he said, "you divide the rest."

((Do not stop to argue with temptation.))