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Aesop's Fables, translated by Laura Gibbs (2002)

105. THE CAT AND THE STORK
Perry (Odo 71)

We should strive to be like the stork who was carrying home an eel as food for herself and her chicks.
The cat saw a stork carrying an eel. Now, the cat is a creature who dearly loves fish although he doesn't like to get his feet wet. So the cat said to the stork, 'O most beautiful bird! You have such a red beak and such white feathers! Could it be that your beak is just as red on the inside as it is on the outside?' The stork refused to answer the cat, keeping her mouth shut so that she wouldn't lose her eel. The angry mouser then began insulting the stork, 'Why, you must be deaf or dumb! Why don't you answer me, you wretched creature? You do eat snakes sometimes, don't you? Snakes are poisonous and filthy! A nice animal likes to eat nice things, but you like to eat filthy things that are not nice at all! That means you are the most filthy bird in the world!' The stork didn't say anything, and just kept on walking, carrying her eel.


Source: Aesop's Fables. A new translation by Laura Gibbs. Oxford University Press (World's Classics): Oxford, 2002.
NOTE: New cover, with new ISBN, published in 2008; contents of book unchanged.