Page:An argosy of fables.djvu/94



54 said the Bull, "if I suffer this now, it is you I am afraid of. Let the Lion be once out of sight, and I will soon show you the difference between a Bull and a Goat."

Mean people take advantage of their neighbours' difficulties to annoy them; but the time will come when they will repent them of their insolence.

(Fable 396 Halm; Thomas James' translation.)

THE HUSBANDMAN AND THE SEA

HUSBANDMAN seeing a ship full of sailors tossed about up and down upon the billows, cried out, "O Sea! deceitful and pitiless element, that destroyest all who venture upon thee!" The Sea heard him, and assuming a woman's voice replied, "Do not reproach me; I am not the cause of this disturbance, but the Winds, that when they fall upon me will give no repose. But should you sail over me when they are away, you will say that I am milder and more tractable than your own mother earth."

(Fable 94 Halm; Thomas James' translation.)

THE JACKASS IN OFFICE

N Ass carrying an Image in a religious procession, was driven through a town, and all the people who passed by made a low reverence. Upon this, the Ass supposing that they intended this worship for himself, was mightily puffed up, and would not budge