Page:Three hundred Aesop's fables (Townshend).djvu/144

138 Hares harangued the assembly, and argued that all should be on an equality. The Lions made this reply: "Your words, O Hares! are good; but they lack both claws and teeth such as we have."

A man made a wooden image of Mercury, and offered it for sale. When no one appeared willing to buy it, in order that he might attract purchasers, he cried out that he had the statue to sell of a benefactor, who bestowed wealth and helped to heap up riches. One of the bystanders said to him, "My good fellow, why do you sell him, being such a one as you describe, when you may yourself enjoy the good things he has to give?" "Why," he replied, "I am in want of immediate help, and he is wont to give his good gifts very slowly."

A sitting aloft upon an oak, and singing according to his wont, was seen by a Hawk who, being in want of food, made a swoop down, and seized him. The Nightingale, about to lose his life, earnestly besought the Hawk to let him go, saying that he was not big enough to satisfy the hunger of a Hawk, who, if he wanted food, ought to pursue the larger birds. The Hawk, interrupting him, said: "I should indeed have lost my senses if I should let go food ready to my hand, for the sake of pursuing birds which are not yet even within sight."