Page:Three hundred Aesop's fables (Townshend).djvu/193

Rh

A, in great want of food, saw a Serpent asleep in a sunny nook, and flying down, greedily seized him. The Serpent turning about, bit the Crow with a mortal wound; the Crow in the agony of death exclaimed: "O unhappy me! who have found in that which I deemed a happy windfall the source of my destruction."

A Hunter having snared a hare, placed it upon his shoulders, and set out homewards. He met on his way with a man on horseback who begged the hare of him, under the pretence of purchasing it. The Horseman having got the hare, rode off as fast as he could. The Hunter ran after him, as if he was sure of overtaking him. The Horseman, however, increasing more and more the distance between them, the Hunter, sorely against his will, called out to him, and said, "Get along with you! for I will now make you a present of the hare."

Olive-tree ridiculed the Fig-tree because, while she was green all the year round, the Fig-tree changed its leaves with the seasons. A shower of snow fell upon them, and, finding the Olive full of foliage, it settled upon its branches, and, breaking them down with its weight, at once despoiled it of its beauty and killed the tree; but finding the Fig-tree denuded of leaves, it fell through to the ground, and did not injure it at all.