"Why, you were complaining you could not get at the Tiger that has been
devouring your cattle. I got into this net to-day that you may have him. As I
expected, he came to eat me up, and is in yonder thicket," said the Fox, and gave
a hint that if they would take him out of the trap he would point out the Tiger.
"May we depend upon your word?" said the men.
"Certainly," said the Fox, while the men went with him in a circle to see that he
did not escape.
Then the Fox said to the Tiger and the men: "Sir Tiger, here are the men;
gentlemen, here is the Tiger."
The men left the Fox and turned to the Tiger. The former beat a hasty retreat to
the wood, saying, "I have kept my promise to both; now you may settle it
between yourselves."
The Tiger exclaimed, when it was too late: "Alas! what art for a double part?"
The Hare and the Pig
A Hare and a Pig once agreed to leap over a ditch. The Hare went a great way,
and fell into it, just short by an inch. The Pig went some way and fell into it; but
far behind the Hare. Yet they were eager to know which of them leapt more, and
was therefore the better animal.
So they said to a Fox, who had been watching the race: "Will you tell us which
of us is superior, and which inferior, in the race?"
The Fox said: "Both in the ditch: can't say which!"
The Peacock and the Fox
A Fox, who had an eye on a Peacock, was one day standing in a field with his
face turned up to the sky.
"Reynard," said the Peacock, "what have you been doing?"