Part 1

Æsop’s Fables

A Version for Young Readers

_By_ J. H. Stickney

Illustrated by Charles Livingston Bull

Ginn and Company

Boston—New York—Chicago—London Atlanta—Dallas—Columbus—San Francisco

COPYRIGHT, 1915, BY GINN AND COMPANY ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 321.11

THE Athenæum Press GINN AND COMPANY·PROPRIETORS·BOSTON·U.S.A.

PREFACE

THE good fortune which has attended the earlier edition of this book is a proof that there is less occasion now than formerly to plead the cause of fables for use in elementary schools. And yet their value is still too little recognized. The homely wisdom, which the fables represent so aptly, was a more common possession of intelligent people of a generation or two ago than it is at the present time. It had then a better chance of being passed on by natural tradition than is now the case among the less homogeneous parentage of our school children. And there has never been a greater need than now for the kind of seed-sowing for character that is afforded by this means. As in the troubled times in Greece in Æsop’s day, twenty-five centuries ago, moral teaching to be salutary must be largely shorn of didactic implications and veiled with wit and satire. This insures its most vital working wherever its teaching is pertinent. To be whipped, warned, shamed, or encouraged, and so corrected, over the heads of animals as they are represented in the expression of their native traits, is the least offensive way that can fall to a person’s lot. Among several hundred episodes, knowledge of which is acquired in childhood as a part of an educational routine, most conservative estimates would allow for large, substantial results in practical wit and wisdom, to be reaped as later life calls for them.

It is well recognized by scholars, and should be taught to children, that not all the fables attributed to Æsop are of so early a date. Imitations of his genius all along the centuries have masqueraded under his name. Facts about him appear in the Introduction.

No occasion has been found to change in this edition the style of presentation so highly approved in the original one; but, as a considerable number of the stories, especially in the earlier pages of the book, are amplified somewhat in language form to accommodate them to the needs of children unfamiliar with the animals portrayed, it has been thought wise to present these in the briefer form in which they are generally known to adult readers. These are to be found in an Appendix to the present volume. The ingenious teacher will find numerous ways in which this duplication of stories may be turned to account. Comparison of the two forms will suggest many exercises to be performed by the pupils themselves, in which the longer forms of the fables may be built up from the shorter forms, and vice versa. The teacher who is interested in dramatic work will find also that many of the fables will make excellent material for dramatic presentation in the classroom.

THE EDITOR

CONTENTS

PAGE The Wolf and the Lamb 3 The Fox and the Lion 5 The Dog and his Shadow 6 The Crab and his Mother 8 The Fox and the Grapes 9 The Wolf and the Crane 11 The Ants and the Grasshoppers 13 The Frogs who asked for a King 15 The Donkey in the Lion’s Skin 19 The Mice in Council 20 The Kid and the Wolf 23 The Hawk and the Nightingale 24 The Crow and the Pitcher 25 The Ant and the Dove 26 The Ox and the Frog 28 The Bat and the Weasels 30 The Fox and the Goat 33 The Woman and her Hen 36 The Dog in the Manger 37 The Mouse, the Frog, and the Hawk 38 The Shepherd’s Boy and the Wolf 42 The Fisherman and the Little Fish 44 The Fox and the Crow 46 The Partridge and the Fowler 48 The Thirsty Pigeon 49 The Three Tradesmen 49 The Hares and the Frogs 50 The Eagle and the Arrow 53 The Eagle and the Fox 55 The Drum and the Vase of Sweet Herbs 57 The Two Frogs 58 The Lion and the Mouse 61 The Mouse, the Cat, and the Cock 63 The Ax and the Trees 65 The Jackdaw and the Sheep 66 The Cat and the Cock 67 The Wolf and the Goat 68 The Hen and the Swallow 70 Stone Broth 71 The Mule and the Grasshoppers 73 The Gnat and the Bull 74 A Fox and a Crab 75 The Donkey and the Frogs 75 The Nurse and the Wolf 76 The Cat and the Martins 77 The Cock and the Fox 78 The Horse and his Rider 80 The Fox and the Stork 81 The Dog, the Cock, and the Fox 83 The Fly and the Moth 86 The Boy Bathing 87 The Hare and the Tortoise 88 The Arab and his Camel 90 The Fox who had lost his Tail 92 The Boys and the Frogs 94 The Swallow and the Other Birds 95 The Farmer and the Snake 97 The Raven and the Swan 98 The Birds, the Beasts, and the Bat 99 The Man, his Son, and his Donkey 100 The Country Mouse and the City Mouse 103 The Cock and the Jewel 107 The Old Hound 108 The Vain Jackdaw 109 The Donkey and the Lap Dog 111 The One-Eyed Doe 112 The Camel 114 The Wolf and the House Dog 115 The Oak and the Reed 117 The Dog and the Hare 118 The Hawk, Kite, and Pigeons 120 The War Horse and the Mule 121 The Wind and the Sun 123 The Bear and the Two Travelers 124 The Two Goats 126 The Bull and the Calf 126 The Fawn and his Mother 127 The Mule and his Shadow 129 The Blind Man and the Lame Man 130 The Two Pots 131 The Quack Frog 132 The Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing 133 The Boy and the Filberts 134 The Miser 135 The Widow and her Little Maids 136 The Charcoal Burner and the Fuller 137 The Porcupine and the Snakes 138 The Bundle of Sticks 140 The Mischievous Dog 142 The Dog and the Oyster 143 The Fox and the Leopard 144 The Dogs and the Hides 144 The Woodman and the Trees 145 The Milkmaid and her Pail of Milk 146 The Cat and the Fox 148 The Monkey and the Cat 151 The Wolf and the Shepherd 152 The Wolf, the Fox, and the Ape 153 The Blind Man and the Whelp 154 The Spendthrift and the Swallow 155 The Boar and the Fox 156 Hercules and the Wagoner 156 The Mules and the Robbers 157 The Swallow and the Crow 158 Jupiter and the Bee 159 The Two Travelers 160 The Kid and the Wolf 161 The Gourd and the Pine 162 The Hare and the Hound 163 The Owl and the Grasshopper 164 The Mule eating Thistles 166 The Sick Stag 167 The Wolf and the Shepherds 169 The Boy and the Nettle 169 The Hares and the Foxes 170 Mercury and the Woodman 171 The Rat and the Elephant 173 The Husbandman and the Stork 175 The Satyr and the Traveler 176 The Stag at the Lake 179 The Peasant and the Apple Tree 180 Jupiter, Neptune, Minerva, and Momus 181 The Farthing Rushlight 183 The Horse and the Groom 184 The Trumpeter taken Prisoner 184 The Boasting Traveler 185 The Hedge and the Vineyard 186 The Mouse and the Weasel 186 The Wolf and the Sheep 187 A Widow and her Sheep 188 The Man and the Lion 189 The Lioness 190 The Boy who stole Apples 190 The Goose with the Golden Eggs 191 The Old Man and Death 192 A Father and his Two Daughters 193 The Sick Lion and the Fox 194 The Mountain in Labor 195 Jupiter and the Camel 195 The Moon and her Mother 196 The Horse and the Stag 196 The Council held by the Rats 197 The Rain Cloud 201 The Elephant in Favor 202 The Cuckoo and the Eagle 203 The Fox in the Ice 206 The Inquisitive Man 208 The Squirrel in Service 209 The Wolf and the Cat 211

APPENDIX

PAGE Note 215 The Wolf and the Lamb 216 The Fox and the Lion 217 The Dog and his Shadow 217 The Crab and his Mother 217 The Fox and the Grapes 218 The Wolf and the Crane 218 The Ants and the Grasshoppers 219 The Frogs who asked for a King 220 The Donkey in the Lion’s Skin 221 The Mice in Council 221 The Kid and the Wolf 222 The Hawk and the Nightingale 223 The Crow and the Pitcher 223 The Ant and the Dove 224 The Ox and the Frog 224 The Bat and the Weasels 225 The Fox and the Goat 226 The Woman and her Hen 226 The Dog in the Manger 227 The Mouse, the Frog, and the Hawk 227 The Shepherd Boy and the Wolf 228 The Fisherman and the Little Fish 229 The Fox and the Crow 229 The Partridge and the Fowler 230 The Thirsty Pigeon 230 The Three Tradesmen 231 The Hares and the Frogs 231 The Eagle and the Fox 232

INTRODUCTION

THE HISTORY OF FABLE

MODERN versions of Æsop go back no further than 480 A.D. In their earliest use they are related to the folklore current among all primitive peoples. This folklore had risen in Greece to the rank of literary form a thousand years before the above-mentioned revival in Germany, France, and England. As the creation of Æsop it was the answer to a need for trenchant, but veiled, characterization of men and measures in the dangerous times of the Tyrants. In mirth-provoking utterances, quite apart from personal criticism, things could be intimated with all the force of specific judgments, yet in such veiled form that to resent them was tacit confession that they applied. Later on, when free speech became safer, the grammarians and rhetoricians raised these clever, pithy stories to the literary form they have since maintained.

There is for Æsop’s Fables no authorized original version. Always, it appears, they were subject to interpolations and special versions. They took on metrical forms in Latin, and in later times in French. It is the particular distinction of a real fable that it bears this amplification, yet can at any time and from any true version shake off the accessories of particular phrasing and in its bare facts meet all the requirements of a literary and artistic whole. It is this static character which has made the fable of such value to language students. Even little children, comparing different versions, learn to distinguish the raw material of a real story from its varying renderings. Subjoined is an account of Æsop, called the Inventor and Father of Fable in its present form.

ÆSOP, THE FATHER OF THE FABLE

The life of Æsop, like that of Homer, the most famous of Greek poets, is involved in much obscurity. Sardis, the capital of Lydia; Samos, a Greek island; Mesembria, an ancient colony in Thrace; and Cotiæum, the chief city of a province of Phrygia, contend for the distinction of being his birthplace. Although the honor thus claimed cannot be definitely assigned to any one of these places, yet there are a few incidents now generally accepted by scholars as established facts relating to the birth, life, and death of Æsop. He is, by an almost universal consent, allowed to have been born about the year 620 B.C. and to have been by birth a slave. He was owned by two masters in succession, Xanthus and Jadmon, both inhabitants of Samos, the latter of whom gave him his liberty as a reward for his learning and wit. One of the privileges of a freedman in the ancient republics of Greece was the permission to take an active interest in public affairs; and Æsop, like the philosophers Phædo, Menippus, and Epictetus in later times, raised himself from the indignity of a servile condition to a position of high renown. In his desire alike to instruct and to be instructed, he traveled through many countries, and among others came to Sardis, the capital of the famous king of Lydia, the great patron, in that day, of learning and of learned men. At the court of Crœsus he met with Solon, Thales, and other sages, and is related so to have pleased his royal master by the part he took in the conversations held with these philosophers that Crœsus applied to him an expression which has since passed into a proverb—μαλλον ὁ Φρὑξ, “The Phrygian has spoken better than all.”

On the invitation of Crœsus he fixed his residence at Sardis, and was employed by that monarch in various difficult and delicate affairs of state. In his discharge of these commissions he visited the different petty republics of Greece. At one time he is found in Corinth, and at another in Athens, endeavoring, by the narration of some of his wise fables, to reconcile the inhabitants of those cities to the administration of their rulers. One of these missions, undertaken at the command of Crœsus, was the occasion of his death. Having been sent to Delphi with a large sum of gold for distribution among the citizens, he was so indignant at their covetousness that he refused to divide the money and sent it back to his master. The Delphians, enraged at this treatment, accused him of impiety and, in spite of his sacred character as ambassador, executed him as a public criminal. But the great fabulist did not lack posthumous honors, for a statue was erected to his memory at Athens, the work of Lysippus, one of the most famous of Greek sculptors. These few facts are all that can be relied on with any degree of certainty in reference to the birth, life, and death of Æsop.

* * * * *

The fable on pages 197-200 is a translation of La Fontaine’s metrical version of one of the most popular of the Æsop Fables. La Fontaine, who died at Paris in 1695, was a popular writer of drama and the most noted of the French fabulists. Following this, on pages 201-214, are fables from the Russian of Kriloff, a writer who for nearly twenty years was one of the librarians at the Imperial Public Library at St. Petersburg, in which city he died in 1844.

ÆSOP’S FABLES

ÆSOP’S FABLES

THE WOLF AND THE LAMB

ONE day a Wolf and a Lamb happened to come at the same time to drink from a brook that ran down the side of the mountain.

The Wolf wished very much to eat the Lamb, but meeting her as he did, face to face, he thought he must find some excuse for doing so.

So he began by trying to pick a quarrel, and said angrily: “How dare you come to my brook and muddy the water so that I cannot drink it? What do you mean?”

The Lamb, very much alarmed, said gently: “I do not see how it can be that I have spoiled the water. You stand higher up the stream, and the water runs from you to me, not from me to you.”

“Be that as it may,” said the Wolf, with a snarl, “you are a rascal all the same, for I have heard that last year you said bad things of me behind my back.”

“Dear Mr. Wolf,” cried the poor Lamb, “that could not be, for a year ago I was not born; I am only six months old.”

Finding it of no use to argue any more, the Wolf began to snarl and show his teeth. Coming closer to the Lamb, he said, “You little wretch, if it was not you it was your father, so it’s all the same”; and he pounced upon the poor Lamb and ate her up.

THE FOX AND THE LION

A LITTLE fox was out playing one day, when a Lion came roaring along. “Dear me,” said the Fox, as he hid behind a tree, “I never saw a Lion before. What a terrible creature! His voice makes me tremble.”

The next time the Fox met the Lion he was not so much afraid, but he kept a safe distance and said to himself, “I wish he would not make such a noise!”

The third time they met, the Fox was not frightened at all. He ran up to the Lion, and said, “What are you roaring about?”

And the Lion was so taken by surprise that, without saying a word, he let the Fox walk away.

It would not be safe for little foxes always to follow the example of this one; but it is often true that what our fear makes seem a lion in the way has no danger in it if we meet it bravely.

THE DOG AND HIS SHADOW

A DOG once had a nice piece of meat for his dinner. Some say that it was stolen, but others, that it had been given him by a butcher, which we hope was the case.

Dogs like best to eat at home, and he went trotting along with the meat in his mouth, as happy as a king.

On the dog’s way there was a stream with a plank across it. As the water was still and clear, he stopped to take a look at it. What should he see, as he gazed into its bright depths, but a dog as big as himself, looking up at him, and lo! the dog had meat in his mouth.

“I’ll try to get that,” said he; “then with both mine and his what a feast I shall have!” As quick as thought he snapped at the meat, but in doing so he had to open his mouth, and his own piece fell to the bottom of the stream.

Then he saw that the other dog had lost his piece, too. He went sadly home. In trying to grasp a shadow he lost his substance.

THE CRAB AND HIS MOTHER

“MY child,” said a Crab to her son, “why do you walk so awkwardly? If you wish to make a good appearance, you should go straight forward, and not to one side as you do so constantly.”

“I do wish to make a good appearance, mamma,” said the young Crab; “and if you will show me how, I will try to walk straight forward.”

“Why, this is the way, of course,” said the mother, as she started off to the right. “No, this is the way,” said she, as she made another attempt, to the left.

The little Crab smiled. “When you learn to do it yourself, you can teach me,” he said, and went back to his play.

THE FOX AND THE GRAPES

IT WAS a sultry day, and a Fox was almost famishing with hunger and thirst. He was just saying to himself that anything would be acceptable to him, when, looking up, he spied some great clusters of ripe, black grapes hanging from a trellised vine.

“What luck!” he said; “if only they weren’t quite so high, I should be sure of a fine feast. I wonder if I can get them. I can think of nothing that would so refresh me.”

Jumping into the air is not the easiest thing in the world for a Fox to do; but he gave a great spring and nearly reached the lowest clusters.

“I’ll do better next time,” he said.

He tried again and again, but did not succeed so well as at first. Finding that he was losing his strength and that he had little chance of getting the grapes, he walked slowly off, grumbling as he did so: “The grapes are sour, and not at all fit for my eating. I’ll leave them to the greedy birds. They eat anything.”

THE WOLF AND THE CRANE

ONE day a Wolf, who was eating his dinner much too fast, swallowed a bone, which stuck in his throat and pained him very much. He tried to get it out, but could not.

Just then he saw a Crane passing by. “Dear friend,” said he to the Crane, “there is a bone sticking in my throat. You have a good long neck; can’t you reach down and pull it out? I will pay you well for it.”

“I’ll try,” said the Crane. Then he put his head into the Wolf’s mouth, between his sharp teeth, and reaching down, pulled out the bone.

“There!” said the Wolf, “I am glad it is out; I must be more careful another time.”

“I will go now, if you will pay me,” said the Crane.

“Pay you, indeed!” cried the Wolf. “Be thankful that I did not bite your head off when it was in my mouth. You ought to be content with that.”

* * * * *

Gentle, kindly folk sometimes have to learn that kindness must be mixed with caution.

THE ANTS AND THE GRASSHOPPERS

THE Ants and the Grasshoppers lived together in the great field. The Ants were busy all the time gathering a store of grain to lay by for winter use. They gave themselves so little pleasure that their merry neighbors, the Grasshoppers, began at last to take scarcely any notice of them.

When the frost came, it put an end to the work of the Ants and the chirping and merrymaking of the Grasshoppers. But one fine winter’s day, when the Ants were employed in spreading their grain in the sun to dry, a Grasshopper, who was nearly perishing with hunger, chanced to pass by.

“Good day to you, kind neighbor,” said she; “will you not lend me a little food? I will certainly pay you before this time next year.”

“How does it happen that you have no food of your own?” asked an old Ant. “There was an abundance in the field where we lived side by side all summer, and your people seemed to be active enough. What were you doing, pray?”

“Oh,” said the Grasshopper, forgetting his hunger, “I sang all the day long, and all the night, too.”

“Well, then,” interrupted the Ant, “I must not deprive my own family for you. If Grasshoppers find it so gay to sing away the summer, they must starve in winter,” and she went on with her work, all the while singing the old song, “We ants never borrow; we ants never lend.”

THE FROGS WHO ASKED FOR A KING

THERE were once some Frogs who lived together in perfect security in a beautiful lake. They were a large company, and were very comfortable, but they came to think that they might be still happier if they had a King to rule over them.

So they sent to Jupiter, their god, to ask him to give them a King.

Jupiter laughed at their folly, for he knew that they were better off as they were; but he said to them, “Well, here is a King for you,” and into the water he threw a big Log.

It fell with such a splash that the Frogs were terrified and hid themselves in the deep mud under the water.

By and by, one braver than the rest peeped out to look at the King, and saw the Log, as it lay quietly on the top of the water. Soon, one after another they all came out of their hiding places and ventured to look at their great King.