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Aesop's Fables: Townsend (1867)

86. The Fir-Tree and the Bramble (Perry 304)

A FIR-TREE said boastingly to the Bramble, 'You are useful for nothing at all; while I am everywhere used for roofs and houses.' The Bramble answered: 'You poor creature, if you would only call to mind the axes and saws which are about to hew you down, you would have reason to wish that you had grown up a Bramble, not a Fir-Tree.'
Better poverty without care, than riches with.


George Fyler Townsend's translation of the fables, first published in 1867, is in the public domain and can be found at many websites, including Project Gutenberg. Illustrations come from: Aesop's Fables, by George Fyler Townsend, with illustrations by Harrison Weir, 1867, at Google Books.