Page:Three hundred Aesop's fables (Townshend).djvu/85

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The Fables of Æsop.
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them again answered him: "We indeed wish you well, but the danger is not over. There is one other yet to pass through the shed, who has as it were a hundred eyes, and until he has come and gone, your life is still in peril." At that moment the master himself entered, and having had to complain that his oxen had not been properly fed, he went up to their racks, and cried out: "Why is there such a scarcity of fodder? There is not half enough straw for them to lie on. Those lazy fellows have not even swept the cobwebs away." While he thus examined everything in turn, he spied the tips of the antlers of the Stag peeping, out of the straw. Then summoning his labourers, he ordered that the Stag should be seized, and killed.


THE TWO DOGS.

A Man had two dogs; a Hound, trained to assist him in his sports, and a House-dog, taught to watch the house. When he returned home after a good day's sport, he always gave the House-dog a large share of his spoil. The Hound feeling much aggrieved at this, reproached his companion, saying, "It is very hard to have all this labour, while you, who do not assist in the chase, luxuriate on the fruits of my exertions." The House-dog replied, "Do not blame me, my friend, but find fault with the master, who has not taught me to labour, but to depend for subsistence on the labour of others."

Children are not to be blamed for the faults of their parents.


THE WILD ASS AND THE LION.

A Wild Ass and a Lion entered into an alliance, that they might capture the beasts of the forest with the greater