Tag Archives: Friend or Foe

46.Friend or Foe?

A fox slipped in climbing a fence. To save himself from falling he clutched at a brier-bush. The thorns made his paws bleed, and in his pain he cried out: “Oh dear! I turned to you for help and you have made me worse off than I was before.”

“Yes, my friend!” said the brier. “You made a bad mistake when you tried to lay hold of me. I lay hold of everyone myself.”

The incident illustrates the folly of those who run for aid to people whose nature it is to hurt rather than to help.