Aesop’s Fables, part 7 · page 21 2101The Farmer and the Fox102A FARMER, who bore a grudge against a Fox for robbing his poultry yard, caught him at last, and being determined to take an ample revenge, tied some rope well soaked in oil to his tail, and set it on fire.103The Fox by a strange fatality rushed to the fields of the Farmer who had captured him.104It was the time of the wheat harvest; but the Farmer reaped nothing that year and returned home grieving sorely.105The Traveler and Fortune106A TRAVELER wearied from a long journey lay down, overcome with fatigue, on the very brink of a deep well.107Just as he was about to fall into the water, Dame Fortune, it is said, appeared to him and waking him from his slumber thus addressed him: “Good Sir, pray wake up: for if you fall into the well, the blame will be thrown on me, and I shall get an ill name among mortals; for I find that men are sure to impute their calamities to me, however much by their own folly they have really brought them on themselves.”108Everyone is more or less master of his own fate.109The Seagull and the Kite110A SEAGULL having bolted down too large a fish, burst its deep gullet-bag and lay down on the shore to die.111A Kite saw him and exclaimed: “You richly deserve your fate; for a bird of the air has no business to seek its food from the sea.”112Every man should be content to mind his own business.113The Lion, the Bear, and the Fox114A LION and a Bear seized a Kid at the same moment, and fought fiercely for its possession.115When they had fearfully lacerated each other and were faint from the long combat, they lay down exhausted with fatigue.116A Fox, who had gone round them at a distance several times, saw them both stretched on the ground with the Kid lying untouched in the middle.117He ran in between them, and seizing the Kid scampered off as fast as he could.118The Lion and the Bear saw him, but not being able to get up, said, “Woe be to us, that we should have fought and belabored ourselves only to serve the turn of a Fox.”119It sometimes happens that one man has all the toil, and another all the profit.120The Philosopher, the Ants, and Mercury121A PHILOSOPHER witnessed from the shore the shipwreck of a vessel, of which the crew and passengers were all drowned.122He inveighed against the injustice of Providence, which would for the sake of one criminal perchance sailing in the ship allow so many innocent persons to perish.123As he was indulging in these reflections, he found himself surrounded by a whole army of Ants, near whose nest he was standing.124One of them climbed up and stung him, and he immediately trampled them all to death with his foot.125Mercury presented himself, and striking the Philosopher with his wand, said, “And are you indeed to make yourself a judge of the dealings of Providence, who hast thyself in a similar manner treated these poor Ants?”126The Peasant and the Eagle127A PEASANT found an Eagle captured in a trap, and much admiring the bird, set him free.128The Eagle did not prove ungrateful to his deliverer, for seeing the Peasant sitting under a wall which was not safe, he flew toward him and with his talons snatched a bundle from his head.129When the Peasant rose in pursuit, the Eagle let the bundle fall again.130Taking it up, the man returned to the same place, to find that the wall under which he had been sitting had fallen to pieces; and he marveled at the service rendered him by the Eagle.131The Fox and the Leopard132THE FOX and the Leopard disputed which was the more beautiful of the two.133The Leopard exhibited one by one the various spots which decorated his skin.134But the Fox, interrupting him, said, “And how much more beautiful than you am I, who am decorated, not in body, but in mind.”135The Lion and the Hare136A LION came across a Hare, who was fast asleep.137He was just in the act of seizing her, when a fine young Hart trotted by, and he left the Hare to follow him.138The Hare, scared by the noise, awoke and scudded away.139The Lion was unable after a long chase to catch the Hart, and returned to feed upon the Hare.140On finding that the Hare also had run off, he said, “I am rightly served, for having let go of the food that I had in my hand for the chance of obtaining more.”141The Image of Mercury and the Carpenter1 2← previousAesop’s Fables, part 6next →Aesop’s Fables, part 8↑ back to Three hundred Aesop’s fablesThis page in Markdown → https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg21/9/page/2/