Page:An argosy of fables.djvu/78



40 THE DOG IN THE MANGER

DOG made his bed in a Manger, and lay snarling and growling to keep the horses from their provender. "See," said one of them, "what a miserable cur! who neither can eat corn himself, nor will allow those to eat it who can."

(Fable 228 Halm; Thomas James' translation.)

THE LION, THE BEAR AND THE FOX

LION and a Bear found the carcass of a Fawn, and had a long fight for it. The contest was so hard and even, that, at last, both of them half-blinded and half-dead lay panting on the ground, without strength to touch the prize that was stretched between them. A Fox coming by at the time, and seeing their helpless condition, stepped in between the combatants and carried off the booty. "Poor creatures that we are," cried they, "who have been exhausting all our strength and injuring one another, merely to give a rogue a dinner!"

(Fable 247 Halm; Thomas James' translation.)

THE GOOSE WITH THE GOLDEN EGGS

CERTAIN man had the good fortune to possess a Goose that laid him a Golden Egg every day. But dissatisfied with so slow an income, and thinking to seize the whole treasure at once he killed the Goose; and cutting her open, found her—just what any other goose would be!

Much wants more and loses all.

(Fable 343 Halm; Thomas James' translation.)