Aesop’s Fables, part 12 · page 21 2101What is most truly valuable is often underrated.102The Lark Burying Her Father103THE LARK (according to an ancient legend) was created before the earth itself, and when her father died, as there was no earth, she could find no place of burial for him.104She let him lie uninterred for five days, and on the sixth day, not knowing what else to do, she buried him in her own head.105Hence she obtained her crest, which is popularly said to be her father’s grave-hillock.106Youth’s first duty is reverence to parents.107The Gnat and the Bull108A GNAT settled on the horn of a Bull, and sat there a long time.109Just as he was about to fly off, he made a buzzing noise, and inquired of the Bull if he would like him to go.110The Bull replied, “I did not know you had come, and I shall not miss you when you go away.”111Some men are of more consequence in their own eyes than in the eyes of their neighbors.112The Monkey and the Camel113THE BEASTS of the forest gave a splendid entertainment at which the Monkey stood up and danced.114Having vastly delighted the assembly, he sat down amidst universal applause.115The Camel, envious of the praises bestowed on the Monkey and desiring to divert to himself the favour of the guests, proposed to stand up in his turn and dance for their amusement.116He moved about in so utterly ridiculous a manner that the Beasts, in a fit of indignation, set upon him with clubs and drove him out of the assembly.117It is absurd to ape our betters.118The Dogs and the Hides119SOME DOGS famished with hunger saw a number of cowhides steeping in a river.120Not being able to reach them, they agreed to drink up the river, but it happened that they burst themselves with drinking long before they reached the hides.121Attempt not impossibilities.122The Jackdaw and the Fox123A HALF-FAMISHED JACKDAW seated himself on a fig-tree, which had produced some fruit entirely out of season, and waited in the hope that the figs would ripen.124A Fox seeing him sitting so long and learning the reason of his doing so, said to him, “You are indeed, sir, sadly deceiving yourself; you are indulging a hope strong enough to cheat you, but which will never reward you with enjoyment.”125Mercury and the Workmen126A WORKMAN, felling wood by the side of a river, let his axe drop by accident into a deep pool.127Being thus deprived of the means of his livelihood, he sat down on the bank and lamented his hard fate.128Mercury appeared and demanded the cause of his tears.129After he told him his misfortune, Mercury plunged into the stream, and, bringing up a golden axe, inquired if that were the one he had lost.130On his saying that it was not his, Mercury disappeared beneath the water a second time, returned with a silver axe in his hand, and again asked the Workman if it were his.131When the Workman said it was not, he dived into the pool for the third time and brought up the axe that had been lost.132The Workman claimed it and expressed his joy at its recovery.133Mercury, pleased with his honesty, gave him the golden and silver axes in addition to his own.134The Workman, on his return to his house, related to his companions all that had happened.135One of them at once resolved to try and secure the same good fortune for himself.136He ran to the river and threw his axe on purpose into the pool at the same place, and sat down on the bank to weep.137Mercury appeared to him just as he hoped he would; and having learned the cause of his grief, plunged into the stream and brought up a golden axe, inquiring if he had lost it.138The Workman seized it greedily, and declared that truly it was the very same axe that he had lost.139Mercury, displeased at his knavery, not only took away the golden axe, but refused to recover for him the axe he had thrown into the pool.1 2← previousAesop’s Fables, part 11next →Aesop’s Fables, part 13↑ back to Three hundred Aesop’s fablesThis page in Markdown → https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg21/14/page/2/