【英文原著类】Aesop’s Fables(伊索寓言).pdf

Aesop's Fables
Aesop's Fables
1
Aesop's Fables
The Cock and the Pearl
A cock was once strutting up and down the farmyard among the hens
when suddenly he espied something shinning amid the straw. "Ho! ho!"
quoth he, "that's for me," and soon rooted it out from beneath the straw.
What did it turn out to be but a Pearl that by some chance had been lost in
the yard? "You may be a treasure," quoth Master Cock, "to men that
prize you, but for me I would rather have a single barley-corn than a peck
of pearls."
Precious things are for those that can prize them.
2
Aesop's Fables
The Wolf and the Lamb
Once upon a time a Wolf was lapping at a spring on a hillside, when,
looking up, what should he see but a Lamb just beginning to drink a little
lower down. "There's my supper," thought he, "if only I can find some
excuse to seize it." Then he called out to the Lamb, "How dare you
muddle the water from which I am drinking?"
"Nay, master, nay," said Lambikin; "if the water be muddy up there, I
cannot be the cause of it, for it runs down from you to me."
"Well, then," said the Wolf, "why did you call me bad names this time
last year?"
"That cannot be," said the Lamb; "I am only six months old."
"I don't care," snarled the Wolf; "if it was not you it was your father;"
and with that he rushed upon the poor little Lamb and .WARRA
WARRA WARRA WARRA WARRA .ate her all up. But before she
died she gasped out ."Any excuse will serve a tyrant."
3
Aesop's Fables
The Dog and the Shadow
It happened that a Dog had got a piece of meat and was carrying it
home in his mouth to eat it in peace. Now on his way home he had to
cross a plank lying across a running brook. As he crossed, he looked
down and saw his own shadow reflected in the water beneath. Thinking
it was another dog with another piece of meat, he made up his mind to
have that also. So he made a snap at the shadow in the water, but as he
opened his mouth the piece of meat fell out, dro