Page:An argosy of fables.djvu/52

 16 THE SICK STAG

STAG that had fallen sick, lay down on the rich herbage of a lawn, close to a wood-side, that she might obtain an easy pasturage. But so many of the beasts came to see her—for she was a good sort of neighbour—that one taking a little, and another a little, they ate up all the grass in the place. So, though recovering from her disease, she pined for want, and in the end lost both her substance and her life.

(Fable 131 Halm; Thomas James' translation.)

THE MOON AND HER MOTHER

HE Moon once asked her Mother to make her a little cloak that would fit her well. "How" replied she, "can I make you a cloak to fit you, who are now a New Moon, and then a Full Moon, and then again neither one nor the other?"

(Fable 389 Halm; Thomas James' translation.)

THE ASS AND THE GRASSHOPPERS

N Ass hearing some Grasshoppers chirping, was delighted with the music, and determining, if he could, to rival them, asked them what it was they fed upon to make them sing so sweetly? When they told him that they supped upon nothing but dew, the Ass betook himself to the same diet, and soon died of hunger.

One man's meat is another man's poison.

(Fable 337 Halm; Thomas James' translation.)