The Fables of Æsop (Jacobs)/The Fox and the Grapes

by Aesop

 

NE hot summer's day a Fox was strolling through an orchard till he came to a bunch of Grapes just ripening on a vine which had been trained over a lofty branch. "Just the thing to quench my thirst" quoth he. Drawing back a few paces, he took a run and a jump, and just missed the bunch. Turning round again with a One, Two,

Three, he jumped up, but with no greater success. Again and again he tried after the tempting morsel, but at last had to give it up, and walked away with his nose in the air, saying: "I am sure they are sour."

It is easy to despise what you cannot get.