a pair of oxen were drawing a heavily loaded wagon along a miry country road. they had to use all their strength to pull the wagon, but they did not complain.
the wheels of the wagon were of a different sort. though the task they had to do was very light compared with that of the oxen, they creaked and groaned at every turn. the poor oxen, pulling with all their might to draw the wagon through the deep mud, had their ears filled with the loud complaining of the wheels. and this, you may well know, made their work so much the harder to endure.
"silence!" the oxen cried at last, out of patience. "what have you wheels to complain about so loudly? we are drawing all the weight, not you, and we are keeping still about it besides."
they complain most who suffer least.
a lion lay asleep in the forest, his great head resting on his paws. a timid little mouse came upon him unexpectedly, and in her fright and haste to get away, ran across the lion's nose. roused from his nap, the lion laid his huge paw angrily on the tiny creature to kill her.
"spare me!" begged the poor mouse. "please let me go and some day i will surely repay you."
the lion was much amused to think that a mouse could ever help him. but he was generous and finally let the mouse go.
some days later, while stalking his prey in the forest, the lion was caught in the toils of a hunter's net. unable to free himself, he filled the forest with his angry roaring. the mouse knew the voice and quickly found the lion struggling in the net. running to one of the great ropes that bound him, she gnawed it until it parted, and soon the lion was free.
"you laughed when i said i would repay you," said the mouse. "now you see that even a mouse can help a lion."
a kindness is never wasted.
a shepherd boy tended his master's sheep near a dark forest not far from the village. soon he found life in the pasture very dull. all he could do to amuse himself was to talk to his dog or play on his shepherd's pipe.
one day as he sat watching the sheep and the quiet forest, and thinking what he would do should he see a wolf, he thought of a plan to amuse himself.
his master had told him to call for help should a wolf attack the flock, and the villagers would drive it away. so now, though he had not seen anything that even looked like a wolf, he ran toward the village shouting at the top of his voice, "wolf! wolf!"
as he expected, the villagers who heard the cry dropped their work and ran in great excitement to the pasture. but when they got there they found the boy doubled up with laughter at the trick he had played on them.
a few days later the shepherd boy again shouted, "wolf! wolf!" again the villagers ran to help him, only to be laughed at again.
then one evening as the sun was setting behind the forest and the shadows were creeping out over the pasture, a wolf really did spring from the underbrush and fall upon the sheep.
in terror the boy ran toward the village shouting "wolf! wolf!" but though the villagers heard the cry, they did not run to help him as they had before. "he cannot fool us again," they said.
the wolf killed a great many of the boy's sheep and then slipped away into the forest.
liars are not believed even when they speak the truth.
a gnat flew over the meadow with much buzzing for so small a creature and settled on the tip of one of the horns of a bull. after he had rested a short time, he made ready to fly away. but before he left he begged the bull's pardon for having used his horn for a resting place.
"you must be very glad to have me go now," he said.
"it's all the same to me," replied the bull. "i did not even know you were there."
we are often of greater importance in our own eyes than in the eyes of our neighbor.
the smaller the mind the greater the conceit.
two travellers, walking in the noonday sun, sought the shade of a widespreading tree to rest. as they lay looking up among the pleasant leaves, they saw that it was a plane tree.
"how useless is the plane!" said one of them. "it bears no fruit whatever, and only serves to litter the ground with leaves."
"ungrateful creatures!" said a voice from the plane tree. "you lie here in my cooling shade, and yet you say i am useless! thus ungratefully, o jupiter, do men receive their blessings!"
our best blessings are often the least appreciated.
a stork of a very simple and trusting nature had been asked by a gay party of cranes to visit a field that had been newly planted. but the party ended dismally with all the birds entangled in the meshes of the farmer's net.
the stork begged the farmer to spare him.
"please let me go," he pleaded. "i belong to the stork family who you know are honest and birds of good character. besides, i did not know the cranes were going to steal."
"you may be a very good bird," answered the farmer, "but i caught you with the thieving cranes and you will have to share the same punishment with them."
you are judged by the company you keep.
