Page:Three hundred Aesop's fables (Townshend).djvu/146

140 a few days later, and saw the wheat shedding the grain from excess of ripeness, and said, "I will come myself to-morrow with my labourers, and with as many reapers as I can hire, and will get in the harvest." The Lark on hearing these words said to her brood, "It is time now to be off, my little ones, for the man is in earnest this time; he no longer trusts to his friends, but will reap the field himself."

Self-help is the best help.

A and a Cock, being great friends, agreed to travel together. At nightfall they took shelter in a thick wood. The Cock, flying up, perched himself on the branches of a tree, while the Dog found a bed beneath in the hollow trunk. When the morning dawned, the Cock, as usual, crowed very loudly several times. A Fox hearing the sound, and wishing to make a breakfast on him, came and stood under the branches, saying how earnestly he desired to make the acquaintance of the owner of so magnificent a voice. The Cock, suspecting his civilities, said: "Sir, I wish you would do me the favour to go round to the hollow trunk below me, and wake up my porter, that he may open the door, and let you in." On the Fox approaching the tree, the Dog sprang out and caught him, and tore him in pieces.

Geese and the Cranes fed in the same meadow. A birdcatcher came to ensnare them in his nets. The Cranes being light of wing, fled away at his approach; while the Geese, being slower of flight and heavier in their bodies, were captured.