120.The Farmer and the Snake
ONE WINTER a farmer found a snake stiff and frozen with cold. He had compassion on it, and taking it up, placed it in his bosom. The snake was quickly revived by the warmth, and resuming its natural instincts, bit its benefactor, inflicting on him a mortal wound.
“Oh,” cried the farmer with his last breath, “I deserved that . . . for pitying a scoundrel.”
❖ The greatest kindness will not bind the ungrateful.
❖ When you see a snake, think twice before getting close to it.
❖ Standing and walking on your own two feet with long and thick woolen socks on, is hardly a nasty mistake in a European snake terrain.
119.The Farmer and the Fox
A FARMER, who bore a grudge against a fox for robbing his poultry yard, caught him at last, and being determined to take an ample revenge, tied some rope well soaked in oil to his tail, and set it on fire. The fox by a strange fatality rushed to the fields of the farmer who had captured him. It was the time of the wheat harvest; but the farmer reaped nothing that year and returned home grieving sorely.
❖ The innocent may also run rampant.
❖ It seems unwise to seek an outlet for negative feelings at the cost of solving a problem with integrity.
118.The Farmer and the Cranes
SOME CRANES made their feeding grounds on some ploughlands newly sown with wheat. For a long time the farmer, brandishing an empty sling, chased them away by the terror he inspired; but when the birds found that the sling was only swung in the air, they ceased to take any notice of it and would not move. The farmer, on seeing this, charged his sling with stones, and killed a great number. The remaining birds at once forsook his fields, crying to each other,
“It is time for us to be off to Liliput: for this man is no longer content to scare us, but begins to show us in earnest what he can do.”
❖ Quietly the gentle reflect before killing others.
117.The Farmer and His Sons
A FATHER, being on the point of death, wished to be sure that his sons would give the same attention to his farm as he himself had given it. He called them to his bedside and said,
“My sons, there is a great treasure hid in one of my vineyards.”
The sons, after his death, took their spades and mattocks and carefully dug over every portion of their land. They found no treasure, but the vines repaid their labour by an extraordinary and superabundant crop.
❖ Simple wishes, simple souls.
❖ Nothing worth having ever comes without a lot of hard work.
