Aesop's Fables (Joseph Jacobs)
Jacobs 10. The Ass and the Lapdog (Perry
91)
A Farmer one day came to the stables to see to his beasts of burden:
among them was his favourite Ass, that was always well fed and often carried
his master. With the Farmer came his Lapdog, who danced about and licked
his hand and frisked about as happy as could be. The Farmer felt in his
pocket, gave the Lapdog some dainty food, and sat down while he gave his
orders to his servants. The Lapdog jumped into his master's lap, and lay
there blinking while the Farmer stroked his ears. The Ass, seeing this,
broke loose from his halter and commenced prancing about in imitation
of the Lapdog. The Farmer could not hold his sides with laughter, so the
Ass went up to him, and putting his feet upon the Farmer's shoulder attempted
to climb into his lap. The Farmer's servants rushed up with sticks and
pitchforks and soon taught the Ass that
Clumsy jesting is no joke.
The
Fables of Aesop, by Joseph Jacobs with illustrations by
Richard Heighway (1894). The page images come from Google
Books. The digitized text comes from Project
Gutenberg. You can purchase this inexpensive Dover edition, The
Fables of Aesop by Joseph Jacobs from amazon.com.
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