The thief and the innkeeper ; The pack-ass and the wild ass ; The ass and his masters ; The pack-ass, the wild ass, and the lion ; The ant ;

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Section fourteen of Aesop's Fables, a new translation written by
Azop and translated by V. S. Vernon Jones. This is
a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain.
For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org.
This section has been read by Rosslyn Carlyle. The Thief

(00:25):
and the Innkeeper a thief hired a room at an
inn and stayed there some days on the lookout for
something to steal. No opportunity, however, presented itself, till one day,
when there was a festival to be celebrated. The innkeeper
appeared in a fine new coat and sat down before
the door of the inn for an airing. The thief

(00:47):
no sooner set eyes upon the coat than he longed
to get possession of it. There was no business doing so,
he went and took a seat by the side of
the innkeeper and began talking to him. They converted together
for some time, and then the thief suddenly yw and
hawled like a wolf. The innkeeper asked him, in some

(01:09):
concern what ailed him. The thief replied, I will tell
you about myself, sir, but first I must beg you
to take charge of my clothes for me, for I
intend to leave them with you. Why I have these
fits of yawning I cannot tell. Maybe they are sent
as a punishment for my misdeeds. But whatever the reason,

(01:29):
the facts are that when I have yawned three times,
I become a ravening wolf and fly at men's throats.
As he finished speaking, he yawned a second time and
howled again as before. The innkeeper, believing every word he
said and terrified at the prospect of being confronted with

(01:50):
a wolf, got up hastily and started to run indoors,
but the thief caught him by the coat and tried
to stop him, crying, day, sir, stay and take charge
of my clothes, or else I shall never see them again.
As he spoke, he opened his mouth and began to
y for the third time. The innkeeper, mad with the

(02:15):
fear of being eaten by a wolf, slipped out of
his coat, which remained in the other's hands, and bolted
into the inn and locked the door behind him. And
then the thief quietly stole off with his spoil, the
pack ass and the wild ass. A wild ass who

(02:39):
was wandering idly about one day came upon a pack
ass lying at full length in a sunny spot and
thoroughly enjoying himself. Going up to him, the wild ass said,
what a lucky beast you are. Your sleek coat shows
how well you live. How I envy you. Not long after, sure,

(03:00):
the wild ass saw his acquaintance again, but this time
he was carrying a heavy load, and his driver was
following behind and beating him with a thick stick. Ah,
my friend, said the wild ass, I don't envy you
any more, for I see you paid year for your comforts.
The moral here is that advantages that are dearly bought

(03:23):
are doubtful blessings. The ass and his master's a gardener
had an ass which had a very hard time of it,
but with scanty food, heavy loads, and constant beating, the
ass therefore begged Jupiter to take him away from the
gardener and hand him over to another master. So Jupiter

(03:46):
sent Mercury to the gardener to bid him sell the
ass to a potter, which he did. But the ass
was as discontented as ever, for he had to work
harder than before, so he begged Jupiter for relief a
second time, and Jupiter very obligingly arranged that he should
be sold to a tanner. But when the ass saw

(04:06):
what his new master's trade was, he cried in despair.
Why wasn't I content to serve either of my former masters?
Hard as I had to work, and badly as I
was treated, for they would have buried me decently. But
now I shall come in the end to the tanning
vat the moral of the story is that servants don't

(04:27):
know a good master till they have served a worse one.
The pack ass, the wild ass, and the lion. A
wild ass saw a pack ass jogging along under a
heavy load, and taunted him with the condition of slavery
in which he lived, in these words, what a vile

(04:49):
lot is yours compared with mine? I am free as
the heir, and never do a stroke of work. And
as for fodder, I have only to go to the hills,
and there I found far more than enough for my needs.
But you you depend on your master for food, and
he makes you carry heavy loads every day and meets
you on mercifully. At that moment, a lion appeared on

(05:13):
the scene and made no attempt to molest the pack ass,
owing to the presence of the driver, But he fell
upon the wild ass, who had no one to protect him,
and without more Ado made a meal of him. The
moral of the story is that it is no use
being your own master unless you can stand up for yourself.

(05:37):
The aunt ants were once men and made their living
by tilling the soil. But not content with the results
of their own work, they were always casting longing eyes
upon the crops and fruits of their neighbors, which they
stole whenever they got the chance, and added to their
own store. At last, their covetousness made Jupiter so angry

(06:01):
that he'd changed them into ants. But though their forms
were changed, their nature remained the same, and so to
this day they go about among the cornfields and gather
the fruits of others labor, and store them up for
their own use. The moral here is that you may
punish a thief, but his bent remains. The frogs and

(06:26):
the Well. Two frogs lived together in a marsh, But
one hot summer the marsh dried up, and they left
it to look for another place to live in, for
frogs like damp places if they can get them. By
and by, they came to a deep well and One
of them looked down into it and said to the other,

(06:47):
this looks a nice, cool place. Let us jump in
and settle here. But the other, who had a wiser
head in his shoulders, replied, not so fast. My supposing
this well dried up like the marsh rabbit, how should
we get out again. The moral of the story is

(07:09):
that you should think twice before you act. The Crab
and the Fox. A crab once left the seashore and
went and settled in a meadow some way inland, which
looked very nice and green and seemed likely to be
a good place to feed in. But a hungry fox

(07:31):
came along and spied the crab and caught him just
as he was going to be eating up. The crab said,
this is just what I deserve, for I had no
business to leave my natural home by the sea and
settle here, as though I belonged to the land. The
moral of this story is that you should be content
with your lot. The Fox and the Grasshopper. A grasshopper

(07:58):
sat chirping in the branches of a tree. A fox
heard her, and, thinking what a dainty morsel she would make,
he tried to get her down by a trick standing
below in full view of her. He praised her song
in the most flattering terms and begged her to descend,
saying he would like to make the acquaintance of the
owner of so beautiful a voice. But she was not

(08:21):
to be taken in and replied, you are very much mistaken,
my dear sir. If you imagine I am going to
come down, I keep well out of the weight of
you and your kind. Ever since the day when I
saw numbers of grasshoppers wings strewn about the entrance to
a fox's earth, the farmer, his boy and the rooks.

(08:45):
A farmer had just sown a field of wheat and
was keeping a careful watch over it, for numbers of
rooks and starlings kept continually settling on it and eating
up the grain. Along with him went his boy carrying
a sling, and whenever the farmer asked for the sling,
the starlings understood what he said and warned the rooks,
and they were of in a moment. So the farmer

(09:07):
had on a trick. My lad said he we must
get the better of these birds somehow after this. When
I want the sling, I won't say sling, but just humm.
And you must then hand me the sling quickly. Presently
back came the whole flock, humm said the farmer, for

(09:29):
the starlings took no notice, and he had time to
sling several stones among them, hitting one on the head,
another in the legs, and another in the wing before
they got out of range. As they made all haste away,
they met some cranes who asked them what the matter was. Matter,
said one of the rooks. It's those rascals men that

(09:50):
are the matter. Don't you go near them. They have
a way of saying one thing and meaning another, which
has just been the death of several of our poor friends.
The ass and the dog an ass and a dog
were on their travels together, and as they went along
they found a sealed packet lying on the ground. The

(10:12):
ass picked it up, broke the seal, and found it
contained some writing, which he proceeded to read it aloud
to the dog. As he read on, it turned out
to be all about grass and barley and hay, in short,
all the kinds of fodder the asses are fond of.
The dog was a good deal oh, bored with listening

(10:33):
to all this till at last his impatience got the
better of him, and he cried, just skip a few pages, friend,
and see if there isn't something about meat and boones.
The ass glanced all through the packet but found nothing
of the sort, and said so. Then the dog said
and discussed, oh'll throw it away. Do what's the good
of a thing like that? The ass carrying the image

(11:00):
A certain man put an image on the back of
his ass to take it to one of the temples
of the town. As they went along the road, all
the people they met uncovered and bowed their heads out
of reverence for the image, But the ass thought they
were doing it out of respect for himself, and began
to give himself airs accordingly. At last he became so

(11:22):
conceited that he imagined he could do as he liked, and,
by way of protest against the load he was carrying,
he came to a full stop and flatly declined to
proceed any further. His driver, finding him so obstinate, hit
him hard and long with his sticks, saying the while, oh,
you dunderheaded idiot. Do you suppose it's come to this

(11:46):
that men pay worship to an ass? The moral of
this story is that rude shocks await those who take
to themselves the credit that is due to others. The
Athenian and the theban An Athenian and a Thebian were on
the route together and passed the time in conversation, as

(12:09):
is the way of travelers. After discussing a variety of subjects,
they began to talk about heroes, a topic that tends
to be more fertile than edifying. Each of them was
lavish in his praises of the heroes of his own city,
until eventually the Thebian asserted that Hercules was the greatest
hero who had ever lived on earth, and now occupied

(12:31):
a foremost place amongst the gods, while Athenian insisted that
Theseus was far superior, for his fortune had been in
every way supremely blessed, whereas Hercules had at one time
been forced to act as a servant. And he gained
his point, for he was a very glib fellow, like
all Athenians, so that the Theban, who was no match

(12:53):
for him in talking, cried at last in disgust, all right,
have your way. I only hope that when our heroes
are angry with us, Athens may suffer from the anger
of Hercules and thebes only from that of theseus, the
goat herd and the goat. A goat herd was one

(13:14):
day gathering his flock to return to the fold, when
one of his goats strayed and refused to join the rest.
He tried for a long time to get her to
return by calling and whistling to her, but the goat
took no notice of him at all. So at last
he threw us down at her and broke one of
her horns. In dismay, he begged her not to tell

(13:35):
his master, but she replied, new silly fellow, my horn
would cry aloud even if I held my tongue. The
moral of the story is that it is no use
trying to hide what can't be hidden. The sheep and
the dog. Once upon a time, the sheep complained to

(13:57):
the shepherd about the difference in his treatment of themselves
and his dog. You are conduct, said, they is very strange,
and we think very unfair. We provide you with wool
and lambs and milk, and you give us nothing but grass,
and even that we have to find for ourselves. But

(14:21):
you get nothing at all from the dog, and yet
you feed him with tit bits from your own table.
Their remarks were overhead by the dog, who spoke up
at once and said, yes, and quite right too. Where
would you be if it wasn't for me? Thieves would
steal you, wolves would eat you. Indeed, if I didn't

(14:43):
keep constant watch over you, you would be too terrified
even to graze. The sheep were obliged to acknowledge that
he spoke the truth, and never again made a grievance
of the regard in which he was held by his master,
the shepherd and the wolf. A shepherd found a wolf's

(15:04):
cub straying in the pastures and took him home and
reared him along with his dogs when the cub grew
to his full size. If ever, a wolf stole a
sheep from the flock, used to join the dogs in
hunting him down. It sometimes happened that the dogs failed
to come up with the thief, and, abandoning the pursuit,

(15:26):
returned home. The wolf would on such occasions continue the
chase by himself, and when he overtook the culprit, would
stop and share the feast with him, and then returned
to the shepherd. But if some time passed without a
sheep being carried off by the wolves, he would stale
on himself and share his plunder with the dogs. The

(15:48):
shepherd's suspicions were aroused, and one day he caught him
in the act, and, fastening a rope round his neck,
hung him on the nearest tree. The moral so this
story is that what's brain the bone is sure to
come out in the flesh. End of Section fourteen.