Page:An argosy of fables.djvu/84



46 his flock destroyed, exclaimed, "Fool that I am! yet I deserved no less for trusting my Sheep with a Wolf!"

There is more danger from a pretended friend than from an open enemy.

(Fable 283 Halm; Thomas James' translation.)

THE TRAVELLERS AND THE HATCHET

WO men were travelling along the same road, when one of them picking up a hatchet cries, "See what I have found!" "Do not say I," says the other, "but WE have found." After a while, up came the men who had lost the hatchet, and charged the man who had it with the theft. "Alas," says he to his companion, "we are undone!" "Do not say WE," replies the other, "but I am undone; for he that will not allow his friend to share the prize, must not expect him to share the danger."

(Fable 309 Halm; Thomas James' translation.)

THE ASS, THE FOX AND THE LION

N Ass and a Fox having made a compact alliance, went out into the fields to hunt. They met a Lion on the way. The Fox seeing the impending danger, made up to the Lion, and whispered that he would betray the Ass into his power, if he would promise to bear him harmless. The Lion having agreed to do so, the Fox contrived to lead the Ass into a snare. The Lion no sooner saw the Ass secured, than he fell at once upon the Fox, reserving the other for his next meal.

(Fable 326 Halm; Thomas James [sic] translation.)