THE LION, THE BEAR, AND THE FOX
A Lion and a Bear were roaming together in the wood when they found a dead Fawn. “This belongs to me,” cried the Bear, for she had been the first to catch sight of it. “No! to me,” said the Lion; “am I not the King of Beasts?” As they could not agree as to who should own the body of the Fawn, they fell to blows. The fight was hard and long; and at last both were so faint and weak with loss of blood that they lay down on the ground and panted, for they were quite out of breath. Just then a Fox went by, and saw that the Bear and the Lion had no strength left, so he quickly stepped in between them and bore off the Fawn as his prize. “Ah!” said they, “how foolish we have been! The end of all our fighting has been to give that sly scamp the Fox a good meal.” Half a loaf is better than no bread.
THE HORSE AND THE STAG
The Horse had the plain entirely to himself. A Stag intruded into his domain, and shared his pasture. The Horse desiring to revenge himself on the stranger, requested a man, if he were willing to help him in punishing the Stag. The man replied, that if the Horse would receive a bit in his mouth, and agree to carry him, that he would contrive effectual weapons against the Stag. The Horse consented and allowed the man to mount him. From that hour he found that, instead of obtaining revenge on the Stag, he had enslaved himself to the service of man. Beware of him who demands pay for a courtesy.
THE LION AND THE BOAR
On a summer day, when the great heat induced a general thirst, a Lion and a Boar came at the same moment to a small well to drink. They fiercely disputed which of them should drink first, and were soon engaged in the agonies of a mortal combat. On their stopping on a sudden to take breath for the fiercer renewal of the strife, they saw some Vultures waiting in the distance to feast on the one which should fall first. They at once made up their quarrel, saying, “It is better for us to make friends than to become the food of Crows or Vultures.”