292.The Shipwrecked Man and the Sea
A SHIPWRECKED MAN, having been cast on a certain shore, slept after his buffetings with the deep. After a while he awoke, and looking on the sea, loaded it with reproaches. He argued that it enticed men with the calmness of its looks, but when it had induced them to plow its waters, it grew rough and destroyed them.
The sea, assuming the form of a woman, replied to him:
“Blame not me, my good sir, but the winds, for I am by my own nature as calm and firm even as this earth; but the winds suddenly falling on me create these waves, and lash me into fury.”
❖ A true message makes us benefit as we learn to relax.
291.The Shepherd’s Boy
THERE was once a young Shepherd Boy who tended his sheep at the foot of a mountain near a dark forest. It was rather lonely for him all day, so he thought upon a plan by which he could get a little company and some excitement. He rushed down towards the village calling out “Wolf, Wolf,” and the villagers came out to meet him, and some of them stopped with him for a considerable time. This pleased the boy so much that a few days afterwards he tried the same trick, and again the villagers came to his help. But shortly after this a Wolf actually did come out from the forest, and began to worry the sheep, and the boy of course cried out “Wolf, Wolf,” still louder than before. But this time the villagers, who had been fooled twice before, thought the boy was again deceiving them, and nobody stirred to come to his help. So the Wolf made a good meal off the boy’s flock, and when the boy complained, the wise man of the village said:
❖A LIAR WILL NOT BE BELIEVED, EVEN WHEN HE SPEAKS THE TRUTH.
290.The Shepherd and the Wolf
A SHEPHERD once found the whelp of a wolf and brought it up, and after a while taught it to steal lambs from the neighboring flocks. The wolf, having shown himself an apt pupil, said to the shepherd, “Since you have taught me to steal, you must keep a sharp lookout, or you will lose some of your own flock.”
❖ Some can be trusted. Who are they? What do they have in common?
289.The Shepherd and the Sheep
A SHEPHERD driving his sheep to a wood, saw an oak of unusual size full of acorns, and spreading his cloak under the branches, he climbed up into the tree and shook them down. The sheep eating the acorns inadvertently frayed and tore the cloak. When the shepherd came down and saw what was done, he said,
“You! most ungrateful creatures! You provide wool to make garments for all other men, but you destroy the clothes of him who feeds you.”
❖ Overly self-centered moralising may not be benign.
