Fable
The Owl and The Grasshopper
The Owl always takes her sleep during the day.
Then after sundown, when the rosy light fades from the sky and the shadows rise
slowly through the wood, out she comes ruffling and blinking from the old
hollow tree. Now her weird "hoo-hoo-hoo-oo-oo" echoes through the
quiet wood, and she begins her hunt for the bugs and beetles, frogs and mice
she likes so well to eat.
Now
there was a certain old Owl who had become very cross and hard to please as she
grew older, especially if anything disturbed her daily slumbers. One warm
summer afternoon as she dozed away in her den in the old oak tree, a
Grasshopper nearby began a joyous but very raspy song. Out popped the old Owl's
head from the opening in the tree that served her both for door and for window.
"Get
away from here, sir," she said to the Grasshopper. "Have you no
manners? You should at least respect my age and leave me to sleep in
quiet!"
But
the Grasshopper answered saucily that he had as much right to his place in the
sun as the Owl had to her place in the old oak. Then he struck up a louder and
still more rasping tune.
The
wise old Owl knew quite well that it would do no good to argue with the
Grasshopper, nor with anybody else for that matter. Besides, her eyes were not
sharp enough by day to permit her to punish the Grasshopper as he deserved. So,
she laid aside all hard words and spoke very kindly to him.
"Well
sir," she said, "if I must stay awake, I am going to settle right
down to enjoy your singing. Now that I think of it, I have a wonderful wine
here, sent me from Olympus, of which I am told Apollo drinks before he sings to
the high gods. Please come up and taste this delicious drink with me. I know it
will make you sing like Apollo himself."
The
foolish Grasshopper was taken in by the Owl's flattering words. Up he jumped to
the Owl's den, but as soon as he was near enough so the old Owl could see him
clearly, she pounced upon him and ate him up.
Moral
- Flattery is not a proof of true admiration. Do not let
flattery throw you off your guard against an enemy.
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