Page:Fables of Aesop.pdf/24

 A Crow having stolen a piece of cheese, flew up into a tree with it. A Fox, observing it, came and began to compliment the Crow upon her beauty. 'Your feathers,’ says he, 'are of a most delicate white, and what a fine shape and graceful turn of body is there! If your voice is a fine as your complexion, which I have no doubt it is, no bird need compete with you.' The Crow to set him right, began to sing, and dropping the cheese, the Fox chopped it up, and trotted off.They are indeed fools who give up a real good for a few sweet words. A Husbandman, at the point of death, desirous that his Sons would follow the profession of agriculture made use of this expedient to induce them to it. 'My Sons,’ said he ‘all I have to leave you is my farm and vineyard; and I charge you to beep them, for if I have any treasure, it is buried somewhere within a foot of the surface.' This made the sons, at their father’s death, dig every inch of the ground for the prize, which made it yield a real treasure in the form of a plentiful crop.