THE MAN AND HIS TWO MISTRESSES

 

166. THE TRAVELERS AND THE PLANE TREE Two travelers were walking along a bare and dusty road in the heat of a summer’s day. Coming presently to a plane tree, they joyfully turned aside to shelter from the burning rays of the sun in the deep shade of its spreading branches. As they rested, looking up into the tree, one of them remarked to his companion, “What a useless tree the plane is! It bears no fruit and is of no service to man at all.” The plane tree interrupted him with indignation. “You ungrateful creature,” it cried, “you come and take shelter under me from the scorching sun, and then, in the very act of enjoying the cool shade of my foliage, you abuse me and call me good for nothing!” 

Many a service is met with ingratitude.

167. THE FLEA AND THE OX  A flea once said to an ox, “How comes it that a big strong fellow like you is content to serve mankind, and do all their hard work for them, while I, who am no bigger than you see, live on their bodies and drink my fill of their blood, and never do a stroke for it all?” To which the ox replied, “Men are very kind to me, and so I am grateful to them. They feed and house me well, and every now and then they show their fondness for me by patting me on the head and neck.” “They’d pat me, too,” said the flea, “if I let them. But I take good care they donʼt, or there would be nothing left of me.”

168. THE BIRDS, THE BEASTS, AND THE BAT  The birds were at war with the beasts, and many battles were fought with varying success on either side. The bat did not throw in his lot definitely with either party, but when things went well for the birds he was found fighting in their ranks; when, on the other hand, the beasts got the upper hand, he was to be found among the beasts. No one paid any attention to him while the war lasted. But when it was over, and peace was restored, neither the birds nor the beasts would have anything to do with so double-faced a traitor, and so he remains to this day a solitary outcast from both.

169. THE MAN AND HIS TWO MISTRESSES   A man of middle age, whose hair was turning grey, had two mistresses, an old woman and a young one. The elder of the . two didn’t like having a lover who looked so much younger than herself; so, whenever he came to see her, she used to pull the dark hairs out of his head to make him look old. The younger, on the other hand, didn’t like him to look so much older than herself, and took every opportunity of pulling out the grey hairs, to make him look young. Between them, they left not a hair in his head, and he became perfectly bald.

170. THE EAGLE, THE JACKDAW, AND THE SHEPHERD  One day a jackdaw saw an eagle swoop down on a lamb and carry it off in its talons. “My word,” said the jackdaw, “I’ll do that myself.” So it flew high up into the air, and then came shooting down with a great whirring of wings onto the back of a big ram. It had no sooner alighted than its claws got caught fast in the wool, and nothing it could do was of any use. There it stuck, flapping away, and only making things worse instead of better. By and by up came the shepherd. “Oho,” he said. “So that’s what you’d be doing, is it?” And he took the jackdaw, and clipped its wings and carried it home to his children. It looked so odd that they didn’t know what to make of it. “What sort of bird is it, father?” they asked. “It’s a jackdaw,” he replied, “and nothing but a jackdaw. But it wants to be taken for an eagle.” If you attempt what is beyond your power, your trouble will be wasted and you court not only misfortune but ridicule.