Aesop's Fables: Townsend (1867)
141. The Lion, the Bear, and the Fox (Perry
147)
A LION and a Bear seized a Kid at the same moment, and fought fiercely
for its possession. When they had fearfully lacerated each other and were
faint from the long combat, they lay down exhausted with fatigue. A Fox,
who had gone round them at a distance several times, saw them both stretched
on the ground with the Kid lying untouched in the middle. He ran in between
them, and seizing the Kid scampered off as fast as he could. The Lion
and the Bear saw him, but not being able to get up, said, 'Woe be to us,
that we should have fought and belabored ourselves only to serve the turn
of a Fox.'
It sometimes happens that one man has all the toil, and another all
the profit.
George Fyler Townsend's translation of the fables, first published in 1867, is
in the public domain and can be found at many websites, including Project
Gutenberg.
Illustrations come from: Aesop's Fables, by George Fyler Townsend, with
illustrations by Harrison Weir, 1867, at Google
Books. |