Aesop's Fables: Sir Roger L'Estrange (1692)
137. WASPS, PARTRIDGES, AND A HUSBANDMAN (Perry
215)
A Flight of Wasps, and a Covey of Partridges that were hard put to’t
for Water, went to a Farmer, and begg’d a Soup of him to quench their
Thirst. The Partridges offer’d to dig his Vineyard for’t, and the Wasps
to secure him from Thieves. Pray hold your Hand, says the good Man; I
have Oxen and Dogs that do me these Offices already, without standing
upon Terms. And therefore it will become me to provide for them in the
first Place.
THE MORAL. Charity begins at home, but the necessary Duty of it in
one place does not discharge the christian Exercise of it in another.
 L'Estrange originally published his version of the fables in 1692. There is a
very nice illustrated edition in the Children's Classics series by Knopf: Sir
Roger L'Estrange. Aesop
- Fables which is available at amazon.com.
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