Aesop's tales # 16 - The Eagle and the Beetle
An Eagle was chasing a hare, which was
running for dear life and was at her wits' end to know where to turn for help.
Presently she espied a Beetle, and begged it to aid her. So when the Eagle came
up the Beetle warned her not to touch the hare, which was under its protection.
But the Eagle never noticed the Beetle
because it was so small, seized the hare
and ate her up. The Beetle never forgot this, and used to keep an eye on the
Eagle's nest, and whenever the Eagle laid an egg it climbed up and rolled it
out of the nest and broke it.
At last the Eagle got so worried over the
loss of her eggs that she went up to Jupiter, who is the special protector of
Eagles, and begged him to give her a safe place to nest in; so he let her lay
her eggs in his lap. But the Beetle noticed this and made a ball of dirt the
size of an Eagle's egg, and flew up and deposited it in Jupiter's lap. When
Jupiter saw the dirt, he stood up to shake it out of his robe, and, forgetting about
the eggs, he shook them out too, and they were broken just as before.
Ever since then, they say, Eagles never lay
their eggs at the season when Beetles are about.
Moral: Even the weakest may find means to avenge a wrong.
You're never so small that you're
insignificant.
The weak often revenge themselves on those who
use them ill, even though they be the more powerful.
