a certain father had a family of sons, who were forever quarreling among themselves. no words he could say did the least good, so he cast about in his mind for some very striking example that should make them see that discord would lead them to misfortune.
one day when the quarreling had been much more violent than usual and each of the sons was moping in a surly manner, he asked one of them to bring him a bundle of sticks. then handing the bundle to each of his sons in turn he told them to try to break it. but although each one tried his best, none was able to do so.
the father then untied the bundle and gave the sticks to his sons to break one by one. this they did very easily.
"my sons," said the father, "do you not see how certain it is that if you agree with each other and help each other, it will be impossible for your enemies to injure you? but if you are divided among yourselves, you will be no stronger than a single stick in that bundle."
in unity is strength.
a wolf had been feasting too greedily, and a bone had stuck crosswise in his throat. he could get it neither up nor down, and of course he could not eat a thing. naturally that was an awful state of affairs for a greedy wolf.
so away he hurried to the crane. he was sure that she, with her long neck and bill, would easily be able to reach the bone and pull it out.
"i will reward you very handsomely," said the wolf, "if you pull that bone out for me."
the crane, as you can imagine, was very uneasy about putting her head in a wolf's throat. but she was grasping in nature, so she did what the wolf asked her to do.
when the wolf felt that the bone was gone, he started to walk away.
"but what about my reward!" called the crane anxiously.
"what!" snarled the wolf, whirling around. "haven't you got it? isn't it enough that i let you take your head out of my mouth without snapping it off?"
expect no reward for serving the wicked.[pg 22]
an ass was being driven along a road leading down the mountain side, when he suddenly took it into his silly head to choose his own path. he could see his stall at the foot of the mountain, and to him the quickest way down seemed to be over the edge of the nearest cliff. just as he was about to leap over, his master caught him by the tail and tried to pull him back, but the stubborn ass would not yield and pulled with all his might.
"very well," said his master, "go your way, you willful beast, and see where it leads you."
with that he let go, and the foolish ass tumbled head over heels down the mountain side.
they who will not listen to reason but stubbornly go their own way against the friendly advice of those who are wiser than they, are on the road to misfortune.
