The Talking Beasts Part 4

As a Wagoner was driving his wain through a miry lane, the wheels stuck fast in the clay and the Horses could get on no farther. The Man immediately dropped on his knees and began crying and praying with all his might to Hercules to come and help him.

"Lazy fellow!" cried Hercules, "get up and stir yourself. Whip your Horses stoutly, and put your shoulder to the wheel. If you want my help then, you shall have it."

The Goose with the Golden Eggs

One day a poor countryman going to the nest of his Goose found there a golden egg all yellow and glittering. When he took it up it felt as heavy as lead and he was minded to throw it away, because he thought a trick had been played on him.

On second thoughts, he took it home, however, and soon found to his delight that it was an egg of pure gold. Every morning the same thing occurred, and he soon became prosperous by selling his eggs.

As he grew rich he grew greedy; and thinking to get at once all the gold the Goose could give, he killed it and opened it only to find--nothing!

The Frogs Desiring a King

The Frogs, living an easy, free sort of life among the lakes and ponds, once prayed Jupiter to send them a King.

Jove, being at that time in a merry mood, threw them a Log, saying, as he did so, "There, then, is a King for you."

Awed by the splash, the Frogs watched their King in fear and trembling, till at last, encouraged by his stillness, one more daring than the rest jumped upon the shoulder of the monarch. Soon, many others followed his example, and made merry on the back of their unresisting King. Speedily tiring of such a torpid ruler, they again pet.i.tioned Jupiter, and asked him to send them something more like a King.

This time he sent them a Stork, who tossed them about and gobbled them up without mercy. They lost no time, therefore, in beseeching the G.o.d to give them again their former state.

"No, no," replied he, "a King that did you no harm did not please you.

Make the best of the one you have, or you may chance to get a worse in his place."

The Porcupine and the Snakes

A Porcupine, seeking for shelter, desired some Snakes to give him admittance into their cave. They accordingly let him in, but were afterward so annoyed by his sharp, p.r.i.c.kly quills that they repented of their easy compliance, and entreated him to withdraw and leave them their hole to themselves.

"No, no," said he, "let them quit the place that don't like it; for my part, I am very well satisfied as I am."

The Lark and Her Young Ones

A Lark, who had Young Ones in a field of grain which was almost ripe, was afraid that the reapers would come before her young brood was fledged. Every day, therefore, when she flew off to look for food, she charged them to take note of what they heard in her absence, and to tell her of it when she came home.

One day, when she was gone, they heard the owner of the field say to his son that the grain seemed ripe enough to be cut, and tell him to go early the next day and ask their friends and neighbours to come and help reap it.

When the old Lark came home, the Little Ones quivered and chirped around her, and told her what had happened, begging her to take them away as fast as she could. The mother bade them to be easy; "for,"

said she, "if he depends on his friends and his neighbours, I am sure the grain will not be reaped tomorrow."

Next day, she went out again, and left the same orders as before. The owner came, and waited. The sun grew hot, but nothing was done, for not a soul came. "You see," said the owner to his son, "these friends of ours are not to be depended upon; so run off at once to your uncles and cousins, and say I wish them to come early to-morrow morning and help us reap."

This the Young Ones, in a great fright, told also to their mother. "Do not fear, children," said she; "kindred and relations are not always very forward in helping one another; but keep your ears open, and let me know what you hear to-morrow."

The owner came the next day, and, finding his relations as backward as his neighbours, said to his son: "Now listen to me. Get two good sickles ready for to-morrow morning, for it seems we must reap the grain by ourselves." The Young Ones told this to their mother.

"Then, my dears," said she, "it is time for us to go; for when a man undertakes to do his work himself, it is not so likely that he will be disappointed." She took them away at once, and the grain was reaped the next day by the old man and his son.

The Fox and the Stork

A Fox one day invited a Stork to dine with him, and, wis.h.i.+ng to be amused at his guest's expense, put the soup which he had for dinner in a large flat dish, so that, while he himself could lap it up quite well, the Stork could only dip in the tip of his long bill.

Some time after, the Stork, bearing his treatment in mind, invited the Fox to take dinner with him. He, in his turn, put some minced meat in a long and narrow-necked vessel, into which he could easily put his bill, while Master Fox was forced to be content with licking what ran down the sides of the vessel.

The Fox then remembered his old trick, and could not but admit that the Stork had well paid him off. "I will not apologize for the dinner,"

said the Stork, "nor for the manner of serving it, for one ill turn deserves another."

The Gnat and the Bull

A st.u.r.dy Bull was once driven by the heat of the weather to wade up to his knees in a cool and swift-running stream. He had not been there long when a Gnat that had been disporting itself in the air pitched upon one of his horns.

"My dear fellow," said the Gnat, with as great a buzz as he could manage, "pray excuse the liberty I take. If I am too heavy only say so and I will go at once and rest upon the poplar which grows hard by the edge of the stream.

"Stay or go, it makes no matter to me," replied the Bull. "Had it not been for your buzz I should not even have known you were there."

The Deer and the Lion

One warm day a Deer went down to a brook to get a drink. The stream was smooth and clear, and he could see himself in the water. He looked at his horns and was very proud of them, for they were large and long and had many branches, but when he saw his feet he was ashamed to own them, they were so slim and small.

While he stood knee-deep in the water, and was thinking only of his fine horns, a Lion saw him and came leaping out from the tall gra.s.s to get him. The Deer would have been caught at once if he had not jumped quickly out of the brook. He ran as fast as he could, and his feet were so light and swift that he soon left the Lion far behind. But by and by he had to pa.s.s through some woods, and, as he was running, his horns were caught in some vines that grew among the trees. Before he could get loose the Lion was upon him.

"Ah me!" cried the Deer, "the things which pleased me most will now cause my death; while the things which I thought so mean and poor would have carried me safe out of danger."

The Fox and the Grapes

There was a time when a Fox would have ventured as far for a Bunch of Grapes as for a shoulder of mutton, and it was a Fox of those days and that palate that stood gaping under a vine and licking his lips at a most delicious Cl.u.s.ter of Grapes that he had spied out there.

He fetched a hundred and a hundred leaps at it, till, at last, when he was as weary as a dog, and found that there was no good to be done:

"Hang 'em," says he, "they are as sour as crabs"; and so away he went, turning off the disappointment with a jest.

The Farmer and the Stork