Free Aesop's Fables by Aesop, Arthur Rackham, V. S. Vernon Jones, D. L. Ashliman Page B

saw the tortoise he asked him why he had not been at the banquet. “I don’t care for going out,” said the tortoise. “There’s no place like home.” Jupiter was so much annoyed by this reply that he decreed that from that time forth the tortoise should carry his house upon his back, and never be able to get away from home even if he wished to.

72. THE DOG IN THE MANGER
    A dog was lying in a manger on the hay which had been put there for the cattle, and when they came and tried to eat, . he growled and snapped at them and wouldn’t let them get at their food. “What a selfish beast,” said one of them to his companions. “He can’t eat himself and yet he won’t let those eat who ” can.

73. THE TWO BAGS
    E very man carries two bags about with him, one in front and one behind, and both are packed full of faults. The bag in front contains his neighbors’ faults, the one behind his own. Hence it is that men do not see their own faults, but never fail to see those of others.

74. THE OXEN AND THE AXLETREES
    A pair of oxen were drawing a heavily loaded wagon along the highway, and as they tugged and strained at the yoke the . axletrees creaked and groaned terribly. This was too much for the oxen, who turned round indignantly and said, “Hullo, you there! Why do you make such a noise when we do all the work?”
     
    They complain most who suffer least.

75. THE BOY AND THE FILBERTS
    A boy put his hand into a jar of filberts and grasped as many as his fist could possibly hold. But when he tried to pull it out again he found he couldn’t do so, for the neck of the jar was too small to allow the passage of so large a handful. Unwilling to lose his nuts but unable to withdraw his hand, he burst into tears. A bystander, who saw where the trouble lay, said to him, “Come, my boy, don’t be so greedy. Be content with half the amount, and you’ll be able to get your hand out without difficulty.”
     
    Do not attempt too much at once.

76. THE FROGS ASKING FOR A KING
    T ime was when the frogs were discontented because they had no one to rule over them, so they sent a deputation to Jupiter to ask him to give them a king. Jupiter, despising the folly of their request, cast a log into the pool where they lived, and said that that should be their king. The frogs were terrified at first by the splash and scuttled away into the deepest parts of the pool.
    But by and by, when they saw that the log remained motionless, one by one they ventured to the surface again, and before long, growing bolder, they began to feel such contempt for it that they even took to sitting upon it. Thinking that a king of that sort was an insult to their dignity, they sent to Jupiter a second time and begged him to take away the sluggish king he had given them and to give them another and a better one. Jupiter, annoyed at being pestered in this way, sent a stork to rule over them, who no sooner arrived among them than he began to catch and eat the frogs as fast as he could.

77. THE OLIVE TREE AND THE FIG TREE
    A n olive tree taunted a fig tree with the loss of her leaves at a certain season of the year. “You,” she said, “lose your leaves every autumn and are bare till the spring; whereas I, as you see, remain green and flourishing all the year round.” Soon afterwards there came a heavy fall of snow, which settled on the leaves of the olive so that she bent and broke under the weight. But the flakes fell harmlessly through the bare branches of the fig, which survived to bear many another crop.

78. THE LION AND THE BOAR
    O ne hot and thirsty day in the height of summer a lion and a boar came down to a little spring at the same moment to drink. In a trice they were quarreling as to who should drink first. The quarrel soon became a fight, and they attacked one another with utmost fury. Presently, stopping for a moment to take breath, they saw some vultures seated on a rock above, evidently waiting for one of them to be killed, when they would