Aesop's Fables: Sir Roger L'Estrange (1692)
74. A HUSBANDMAN AND A STORK (Perry
194)
A poor innocent Stork had the ill Hap to be taken in a Net that was laid
for Geese and Cranes. The Stork’s Plea for herself was Simplicity and
Piety: The Love she bare to Mankind, and the Service she did in picking
up venomous Creatures. This is all true, says the Husbandman; but they
that keep ill Company, if they be catch’d with ill Company, must expect
to suffer with ill Company.
THE MORAL. ‘Tis as much as a Man’s Life, Fortune, and Reputation are
worth, to keep good Company (over and above the Contagion of leud Examples;)
for as Birds of a Feather will flock together, so if the good and bad
be taken together, they must expect to go the Way of all Flesh together.
 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.
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