Aesop's Fables, translated by Laura Gibbs (2002)
298. THE MICE AND THE WEASEL
Perry 511 (Phaedrus
4.2)
You might think I am only joking, and it's true that I amuse myself
with a light-hearted stroke of the pen, not having anything of real importance
on my agenda. Yet you should pay careful attention to these little tales:
useful things can come in quite small packages! Appearances can be deceiving:
people are often fooled by first impressions, and it takes an exceptional
mind to detect something hidden in an unexpected nook or cranny. Still,
I've gone on too long without offering any reward to the reader, so I
will thrown in a fable for good measure: the story of the weasel and the
mice.
A weasel, enfeebled by old age and senility, was no longer able to pursue
the swift-footed mice, so she decided to coat herself with flour and lie
down nonchalantly in a dark corner of the house. One of the mice thought
that she must be something good to eat, but as soon as he pounced, the
weasel caught him and consigned him to oblivion; another mouse did the
same, and a third mouse likewise met his doom. A few mice later, another
mouse arrived: his skin was wrinkled with extreme old age and he had escaped
many a time from snares and traps. Already at a distance he recognized
the ambush prepared by their cunning enemy. 'You there, lying in the corner,'
said the mouse, 'I wish you well if -- and only if -- you really are made
of flour!'
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.
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