Page:The art of story-telling, with nearly half a hundred stories, y Julia Darrow Cowles .. (IA artofstorytellin00cowl).pdf/73

 frequently do we illustrate a point by a reference to "Sour Grapes," or to "A Wolf in Sheep's Clothing?" Yet probably not one in twenty knows that all these familiar illustrations find their origin in the fables of Aesop or La Fontaine.

These old classic fables are a part of the literature "which the world has chosen to remember." They have become a part of the literary coin of the realm. In his introduction to Aesop's Fables, Joseph Jacobs says: "In their grotesque grace, in their quaint humor, in their trust in the simpler virtues, in their insight into the cruder vices, in their innocence of the fact of sex, Aesop's Fables are as little children." As an example:

It happened that a fisher, after fishing all day, caught only a little fish. "Pray, let me go, master," said the fish. "I am much too small for your eating just now. If you put me back into the river I shall soon grow, then you can make a fine meal off me."

"Nay, nay, my little fish," said the fisher, "I have you now. I may not catch you hereafter."

It has been well said that the fables are the child's best introduction to the study of human nature. They are "an interpretation of life." That animals are made to talk, and to exhibit human traits, only adds to the