Monthly Archives: September 2013
183.The Horse and the Ass
A HORSE and an Ass were travelling together, the Horse prancing along in its fine trappings, the Ass carrying with difficulty the heavy weight in its panniers. “I wish I were you,” sighed the Ass; “nothing to do and well fed, and all that fine harness upon you.” Next day, however, there was a great battle, and the Horse was wounded to death in the final charge of the day. His friend, the Ass, happened to pass by shortly afterwards and found him on the point of death. “I was wrong,” said the Ass:
“BETTER HUMBLE SECURITY THAN GILDED DANGER.”
182.The Horse and His Rider
A HORSE SOLDIER took the utmost pains with his charger. As long as the war lasted, he looked on him as his fellow-helper in all emergencies and fed him carefully with hay and corn. But when the war was over, he only allowed him chaff to eat and made him carry heavy loads of wood, subjecting him to much slavish drudgery and ill-treatment.
War was again proclaimed, however, and when the trumpet summoned him to his standard, the soldier put on his charger its military trappings, and mounted, being clad in his heavy coat of mail. The horse fell down straightway under the weight, no longer equal to the burden, and said to his master,
“You must now go to the war on foot, for you have transformed me from a horse into a donkey; and how can you expect that I can again turn in a moment from a donkey to a horse?”
$ Don’t Make the Horse to a Donkey.
181.The Horse and Groom
A GROOM used to spend whole days in currycombing and rubbing down his Horse, but at the same time stole his oats and sold them for his own profit.
“Alas!” said the horse, “if you really wish me to be in good condition, you should groom me less, and feed me more.”
180.The Herdsman and the Lost Bull
A HERDSMAN tending his flock in a forest lost a bull-calf from the fold. After a long and fruitless search, he made a vow that, if he could only discover the thief who had stolen the calf, he would offer a lamb in sacrifice to Sir Transporter, Pan, and the guardian deities of the forest. Not long afterwards, as he ascended a small hillock, he saw at its foot a lion feeding on the calf. Terrified at the sight, he lifted his eyes and his hands to heaven, and said:
“Just now I vowed to offer a lamb to the guardian Deities of the forest if I could only find out who had robbed me; but now that I have discovered the thief, I would willingly add a full-grown Bull to the calf I have lost, if I may only secure my own escape from him in safety.”
❖ Great things declared are sham when the real need is to escape.
