Tag Archives: The Flea and the Ox

134.The Flea and the Ox

A FLEA thus questioned an ox:

“What ails you, that being so huge and strong, you submit to the wrongs you receive from men and slave for them day by day, while I, being so small a creature, mercilessly feed on their flesh and drink their blood without stint?”

The ox replied:

“I don’t wish to be ungrateful, for I am loved and well cared for by men, and they often pat my head and shoulders.”

“Woe’s me!” said the flea; “this very patting which you like, whenever it happens to me, brings with it my inevitable destruction.”

In politics one whines over rising above principles.