Aesop's Fables (Joseph Jacobs)
Jacobs 26. The Serpent and the File (Perry
93)
A Serpent in the course of its wanderings came into an armourer's shop.
As he glided over the floor he felt his skin pricked by a file lying there.
In a rage he turned round upon it and tried to dart his fangs into it;
but he could do no harm to heavy iron and had soon to give over his wrath.
It is useless attacking the insensible.
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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