Aesop's tales #
25 - The Fox and the Crow
One bright
morning as the Fox was following his sharp nose through the wood in search of a
bite to eat, he saw a Crow on the limb of a tree overhead. This was by no means
the first Crow the Fox had ever seen. What caught his attention this time and
made him stop for a second look, was that the lucky Crow held a bit of cheese
in her beak.
“No need to
search any farther,” thought sly Master Fox. “Here is a dainty bite for my
breakfast.”
Up he trotted
to the foot of the tree in which the Crow was sitting, and looking up
admiringly, he cried, “Good-morning, beautiful creature!”
The Crow, her
head cocked on one side, watched the Fox suspiciously. But she kept her beak
tightly closed on the cheese and did not return his greeting.
“What a
charming creature she is!” said the Fox. “How her feathers shine! What a
beautiful form and what splendid wings! Such a wonderful Bird should have a
very lovely voice, since everything else about her is so perfect. Could she
sing just one song, I know I should hail her Queen of Birds.”
Listening to
these flattering words, the Crow forgot all her suspicion, and also her
breakfast. She wanted very much to be called Queen of Birds.
So she opened
her beak wide to utter her loudest caw, and down fell the cheese straight into
the Fox's open mouth.
“Thank you,”
said Master Fox sweetly, as he walked off. “Though it is cracked, you have a
voice sure enough. But where are your wits?”
Moral: Do not trust flatterers. He who listens to flattery is not
wise, for it has no good purpose.
