Tag Archives: and the Fox
223.The Lion, the Wolf, and the Fox
A LION, growing old, lay sick in his cave. All the beasts came to visit their king, except the fox. The wolf therefore, thinking that he had a capital opportunity, accused the fox to the lion of not paying any respect to him who had the rule over them all and of not coming to visit him.
At that very moment the fox came in and heard these last words of the wolf. The lion roaring out in a rage against him, the fox sought an opportunity to defend himself and said, “And who of all those who have come to you have benefited you so much as I, who have travelled from place to place in every direction, and have sought and learnt from the physicians the means of healing you?”
The lion commanded him at once to tell him the cure, when he replied, “You must flay a wolf alive and wrap his skin yet warm around you.”
The wolf was at once taken and flayed; whereon the fox, turning to him, said with a smile, “You should have moved your master not to ill will, but to good will.”
❖ The good cure will not always cost too much.
❖ Keep good company and you shall be of the number (Kansas).
❖ Who keeps company with a wolf is not the sole lord and master of ruin and disaster.
222.The Lion, the Mouse, and the Fox
A LION, fatigued by the heat of a summer’s day, fell fast asleep in his den. A mouse ran over his mane and ears and woke him from his slumbers. He rose up and shook himself in great wrath, and searched every corner of his den to find the mouse. A fox seeing him said:
“A fine lion you are, to be frightened of a mouse.”
“It is not the mouse I fear,” said the lion; “I resent his familiarity and ill-breeding.”
❖ If you excuse yourself you accuse yourself.
❖ Many excuses make one sullen.
219.The Lion, the Bear, and the Fox
A LION and a bear seized a kid at the same moment, and fought fiercely for its possession. When they had fearfully lacerated each other and were faint from the long combat, they lay down exhausted with fatigue.
A fox, who had gone round them at a distance several times, saw them both stretched on the ground with the kid lying untouched in the middle. He ran in between them, and seising the kid scampered off as fast as he could. The lion and the bear saw him, but not being able to get up, said,
“Woe be to us, that we should have fought and striven only to serve the turn of a fox.”
❖ As long as two kingfishers fight one another over a fish, none of them gets it.
❖ It sometimes happens that one man has all the toil, and another all the profit.
86.The Dog, the Cock, and the Fox
A DOG and a cock being great friends, agreed to travel together. At nightfall they took shelter in a thick wood. The cock flying up, perched himself on the branches of a tree, while the dog found a bed beneath in the hollow trunk. When the morning dawned, the cock, as usual, crowed very loudly several times. A fox heard the sound and wishing to make a breakfast on him came and stood under the branches, saying how earnestly he desired to make the acquaintance of the owner of so magnificent a voice. The cock, suspecting his civilities, said:
“Sir, I wish you would do me the favor of going around to the hollow trunk below me, and waking my porter, so that he may open the door and let you in.”
When the fox drew near the tree, the dog sprang out and caught him, and tore him to pieces.
