Aesop's Fables: Townsend (1867)
28. The Flies and the Honey-Pot (Perry
80)
A NUMBER of Flies were attracted to a jar of honey which had been overturned
in a housekeeper's room, and placing their feet in it, ate greedily. Their
feet, however, became so smeared with the honey that they could not use
their wings, nor release themselves, and were suffocated. Just as they
were expiring, they exclaimed, 'O foolish creatures that we are, for the
sake of a little pleasure we have destroyed ourselves.'
Pleasure bought with pains, hurts.
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. |