344.The Wolf and the Sheep
A WOLF, sorely wounded and bitten by dogs, lay sick and maimed in his lair. Being in want of food, he called to a sheep who was passing, and asked him to fetch some water from a stream flowing close beside him.
“For,” he said, “if you will bring me drink, I will find means to provide myself with meat.”
“Yes,” said the sheep, “if I should bring you the draught, you would doubtless make me provide the meat also.”
❖ Hypocritical speeches have to be seen through.
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.”
