while the loads of the other servants grew heavier and heavier with
every step.

The people of the neighborhood in which Aesop was a slave one day
observed him attentively looking over some poultry in a pen that was
near the roadside; and those idlers, who spent more time in prying into
other people's affairs than in adjusting their own, asked why he
bestowed his attention on those animals.

"I am surprised," replied Aesop, "to see how mankind imitate this
foolish animal."

"In what?" asked the neighbors.

"Why, in crowing so well and scratching so poorly," rejoined Aesop.

[Illustration: "AESOP" Painting by Valasquez, Madrid ]


Fables, you know, are short stories, usually about animals and things,
which are made to talk like human beings. Fables are so bright and
interesting in themselves that both children and grown-ups like to read
them. Children see first the story, and bye and bye, after they have
thought more about it and have grown older, they see how much wisdom
there is in the fables.

For an example, there is the fable of the crab and its mother. They were
strolling along the sand together when the mother said, "Child, you are
not walking gracefully. You should walk straight forward, without
twisting from side to side."