Category Archives: EUROPE
262.The Olive-Tree and the Fig-Tree
THE OLIVE-TREE ridiculed the fig-tree because, while she was green all the year round, the fig-tree changed its leaves with the seasons. A shower of snow fell on them, and, finding the olive full of foliage, it settled on its branches and broke them down with its weight, at once despoiling it of its beauty and killing the tree. But finding the fig-tree denuded of leaves, the snow fell through to the ground, and did not injure it at all.
❖ Reorientation offers the hope of a better way of life.
261.The Old Woman and the Wine-Jar
AN OLD WOMAN found an empty jar which had lately been full of prime old wine and which still retained the fragrant smell of its former contents. She greedily placed it several times to her nose, and drawing it backwards and forwards said,
“O most delicious! How nice must the wine itself have been, when it leaves behind in the very vessel which contained it so sweet a perfume!”
❖ The memory of a good deed lives.
260.The Old Woman and the Doctor
An old woman became almost totally blind from a disease of the eyes, and, after consulting a doctor, made an agreement with him in the presence of witnesses that she should pay him a high fee if he cured her, while if he failed he was to receive nothing. The doctor accordingly prescribed a course of treatment, and every time he paid her a visit he took away with him some article out of the house, until at last, when he visited her for the last time, and the cure was complete, there was nothing left.
When the old woman saw that the house was empty she refused to pay him his fee; and, after repeated refusals on her part, he sued her before the magistrates for payment of her debt. On being brought into court she was ready with her defense. “The claimant,” said she, “has stated the facts about our agreement correctly. I undertook to pay him a fee if he cured me, and he, on his part, promised to charge nothing if he failed. Now, he says I am cured. But I say that I am blinder than ever, and I can prove what I say. When my eyes were bad I could at any rate see well enough to be aware that my house contained a certain amount of furniture and other things. But now, when according to him I am cured, I am entirely unable to see anything there at all.”
258.The Old Man and Death
An old man cut himself a bundle of sticks in a wood and started to carry them home. He had a long way to go, and was tired out before he had got much more than halfway. Casting his burden on the ground, he called upon Death to come and release him from his life of toil. The words were scarcely out of his mouth when, much to his dismay, Death stood before him and professed his readiness to serve him. He was almost frightened out of his wits, but he had enough presence of mind to stammer out, “Good sir, if you’d be so kind, pray help me up with my burden again.”
“WE WOULD OFTEN BE SORRY IF OUR WISHES WERE GRATIFIED.”
