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Aesop's Fables: Sir Roger L'Estrange (1692)

60. A WOLF, A LAMB AND A GOAT (Perry)

As a Lamb was following a Goat, up comes a Wolf, wheedling, to get him aside, and make a Breakfast of him: Why what a Fool art thou, says the Wolf, that may’st have thy Belly full of sweet Milk at Home, to leave thy Mother for a nasty stinking Goat? Well, says the Lamb, but my Mother has plac’d me here for my Security; and you’d fain get me into a Corner to worry me. Pray’e which of the two am I to trust to now?
THE MORAL. When there’s the Order of a Parent on the one side, and the Advice of an ill Man, and a profess’d Enemy on the other, in Opposition to that Command; Disobedience would be undoubtedly the ready Way to Destruction.


L'Estrange originally published his version of the fables in 1692. There is a very nice illustrated edition in the Children's Classics series by Knopf: Sir Roger L'Estrange. Aesop - Fables which is available at amazon.com.