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

61. THE LION AND THE BOAR AT THE SPRING
Perry 338 (Chambry 203)

In summertime, when the heat makes everyone thirsty, a lion and a wild boar had come to drink from the same small spring. They began to argue about who was going to take the first drink, and their argument escalated into a duel to the death. When they momentarily paused to catch their breath, the lion and the boar saw that vultures were waiting to snatch and devour the one who was killed. At that point, the lion and the boar put their hatred aside and said, 'It is better for us to befriend one another than to be eaten by vultures and ravens!'
The story teaches us that it is good to set aside our deadly disputes and conflicts, since they put everyone's lives in jeopardy.


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.