"Aesop - Fables" - читать интересную книгу автора (Aesop)

THE POMEGRANATE and Apple-Tree disputed as to which was the most
beautiful. When their strife was at its height, a Bramble from
the neighboring hedge lifted up its voice, and said in a boastful
tone: "Pray, my dear friends, in my presence at least cease from
such vain disputings."


The Farmer and the Stork

A FARMER placed nets on his newly-sown plowlands and caught a
number of Cranes, which came to pick up his seed. With them he
trapped a Stork that had fractured his leg in the net and was
earnestly beseeching the Farmer to spare his life. "Pray save
me, Master," he said, "and let me go free this once. My broken
limb should excite your pity. Besides, I am no Crane, I am a
Stork, a bird of excellent character; and see how I love and
slave for my father and mother. Look too, at my feathers--
they are not the least like those of a Crane." The Farmer
laughed aloud and said, "It may be all as you say, I only know
this: I have taken you with these robbers, the Cranes, and you
must die in their company."

Birds of a feather flock together.


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 am
rightly served for pitying a scoundrel."

The greatest kindness will not bind the ungrateful.


The Fawn and His Mother

A YOUNG FAWN once said to his Mother, "You are larger than a dog,
and swifter, and more used to running, and you have your horns as
a defense; why, then, O Mother! do the hounds frighten you so?"
She smiled, and said: "I know full well, my son, that all you say
is true. I have the advantages you mention, but when I hear even
the bark of a single dog I feel ready to faint, and fly away as
fast as I can."

No arguments will give courage to the coward.