Page:An argosy of fables.djvu/215

 Rh "Because," replied the Snake, "if they went after me they would not escape unpunished."

The man who knows how to protect himself is safe from his enemies.

(Abstemius, Fable 17.)

THE FISH THAT LEAPED FROM THE FRYING-PAN

OME Fish were put to fry alive in a pan full of fat. "Come," said one of them, "let us jump out of here, for if we do not, we shall surely die."

The Fishes all believed this to be true, so they all leaped from the frying-pan into the fire. Their suffering now, on the live coals, was much greater, and they began to give way to bitter complaints against the Fish who had first given them the fatal advice. "Thanks to you," they said, "we have doubled our pain, without after all escaping from death."

Let us be careful, in our eagerness to escape the ills of life, that we do not incur some other and much worse evil.

(Abstemius, Fable 20.)

THE YOUTH AND THE OLD MAN

YOUTH met on Old Man bent double with the weight of his years, until he was curved like a strung bow.

"Grandfather," he said mockingly, "don't you want to sell me your bow?"

"You would be wasting your money, my lad," replied the Old