Three Hundred Æsop's Fables/The Eagle, the Cat, and the Wild Sow

THE EAGLE, THE CAT, AND THE WILD SOW.

An Eagle had made her nest at the top of a lofty oak. A Cat, having found a convenient hole, kittened in the middle of the trunk; and a Wild Sow, with her young, had taken shelter in a hollow at its foot. The Cat resolved to destroy by her arts this chance-made colony. To carry out her design, she climbed to the nest of the Eagle, and said, "Destruction is preparing for you, and for me too, unfortunately. The Wild Sow, whom you may see daily digging up the earth, wishes to uproot the oak, that she may on its fall seize our families as food for her young." Having thus deprived the Eagle of her senses through terror, she crept down to the cave of the Sow, and said, "Your children are in great danger; for as soon as you shall go out with your litter to find food, the Eagle is prepared to pounce upon one of your little pigs." Having instilled these fears into the Sow, she went and pretended to hide herself in the hollow of the tree. When night came she went forth with silent foot and obtained food for herself and her kittens; but, feigning to be afraid, she kept a look-out all through the day. Meanwhile, the Eagle, full of fear of the Sow, sat still on the branches, and the Sow, terrified by the Eagle, did not dare to go out from her cave; and thus they each, with their families, perished from hunger, and afforded an ample provision to the Cat and her kittens.