Category Archives: AESOP TALES
343.The Wolf and the Lion
A WOLF, having stolen a lamb from a fold, was carrying him off to his lair. A lion met him in the path, and seizing the lamb, took it from him. Standing at a safe distance, the wolf exclaimed,
“You have unrighteously taken that which was mine from me!” To which the lion jeeringly replied,
“It was righteously yours, eh? The gift of a friend?”
342.The Wolf and the Lamb
ONCE upon a time a Wolf was lapping at a spring on a hillside when, looking up, what should he see but a Lamb just beginning to drink a little lower down. “There’s my supper,” thought he, “if only I can find some excuse to seize it.” Then he called out to the Lamb, “How dare you muddle the water from which I am drinking?”
“No, master, no,” said Lambikin; “if the water be muddy up there, I cannot be the cause of it, for it runs down from you to me.”
“Well, then,” said the Wolf, “why did you call me bad names this time last year?”
“That cannot be,” said the Lamb; “I am only six months old.”
“I don’t care,” snarled the Wolf; “if it was not you it was your father;” and with that he rushed upon the poor little Lamb and ate her all up. But before she died she gasped out:
❖ ANY EXCUSE WILL SERVE A TYRANT.
341.The Wolf and the House-Dog
A WOLF, meeting a big well-fed Mastiff with a wooden collar about his neck asked him who it was that fed him so well and yet compelled him to drag that heavy log about wherever he went.
“The master,” he replied.
Then said the wolf: “May no friend of mine ever be in such a plight; for the weight of this chain is enough to spoil the appetite.”
340.The Wolf and the Horse
A WOLF coming out of a field of oats met a horse and thus addressed him:
“I would advise you to go into that field. It is full of fine oats, which I have left touched for you, as you are a friend whom I would love to hear enjoying good eating.”
The horse replied,
“If oats had been the food of wolves, you would never have indulged your ears at the cost of your belly.”
❖ Men of evil reputation, when they perform a good deed, may not get full credit for it.
