Aesop's Fables: Townsend (1867)
15. The Dog and the Shadow (Perry 133)
A DOG, crossing a bridge over a stream with a piece of flesh in his mouth,
saw his own shadow in the water and took it for that of another Dog, with
a piece of meat double his own in size. He immediately let go of his own,
and fiercely attacked the other Dog to get his larger piece from him.
He thus lost both: that which he grasped at in the water, because it was
a shadow; and his own, because the stream swept it away.
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. |