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Read Ebook: Fables for the Times by Phillips Henry Wallace Sullivant T S Thomas Starling Illustrator
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Ebook has 131 lines and 5713 words, and 3 pages
She was naturally a trifle nervous about trying them at first, but finally mustered up her courage.
Away she swooped, and with a pardonable vanity took her course over a piece of jungle where some old friends lived.
Precisely thirty-eight seconds later a convention of animals, all swearing and trembling with fright, were trying to conceal themselves in the same three-by-four hole in the ground.
The effect on the other animals disconcerted the good-natured hippopotamus to such an extent that she lost control of herself and sailed through the forest like an avalanche on a bender. Down went the trees and crack went the branches, while horror-stricken beasts with bristling hair split the welkin with their shrieks.
The hippopotamus made for home at her best speed. Arriving over the familiar spot, she let go all holds and came down ker-splash in the mud, knocking the astonished little hippopotamuses out into mid-stream.
"Oh, Jupiter! take 'em off!" she gasped. "I now see that the hippopotamus was not intended to fly."
IMMORAL:
It takes more than nine bloomers to make a man.
The Man and the Serpent.
A man, who had lived a beautiful purple life, went to sleep under a tree in the forest. Jove sent a huge serpent to destroy him. The man awakened as the reptile drew near.
"What a horrid sight!" he said. "But let us be thankful that the pink-and-green elephant and the feathered hippopotamus are not also in evidence."
And he took a dose of bromide and commended himself again to sleep, while the serpent withdrew in some confusion.
WHAT THIS PROVES TO A THINKING MIND:
Jove himself couldn't get a job as Sunday-School Superintendent on his reputation.
The Appreciative Man.
A man stood in the archway of an ancient temple. He took in the wonderful proportions and drank of the exquisite detail in an ecstasy of delight.
"Oh, great is art!" he cried in a frenzy. "Art is all! the only God!"
Just then an earthquake came mumbling along and jarred the whole country loose.
"Well, where's your art now?" snarled the lion.
"All in my eye, I reckon," answered the man, as he bathed his damaged optic.
On the Not-Altogether-Credible Habits of the Ostrich.
An ostrich, who was closely pursued by a hunter, suddenly thrust his head deep down into the sand.
"Ah! ah!" exulted the hunter, "I have the silly thing at last." He advanced to place a rope around the bird's legs; but the ostrich, who had accurately timed his arrival, landed a kick in the pit of his stomach that sent him into the hereafter like a bullet through a fog-bank.
IMMORAL:
"Umph," said the ostrich as he surveyed his victim, "because a man looks sad at the opening of a jack-pot, it doesn't necessarily follow that he's only got ace-high."
The Idol and the Ass.
An ass felt it his duty to destroy superstition, so he went up to the brass idol in the market-place and gave it a vigorous kick.
A dog came to him as he lay groaning on the ground, nursing his broken leg, and said, "Well, did you prove anything?"
"Nothing," said the other. "Except that I am an ass."
Deductions to be drawn: Any old thing.
The Bee and Jupiter.
A Bee, the queen of all the hives, ascended to Olympus with a present of some super-refined honey for Jupiter.
The god was delighted with the honey, and in return offered to grant any request the Bee might make.
"Give to me, I pray, O Lord of the Heavens! a sting, that, small and weak as I am, I may not be defenceless against my enemies."
Jupiter was quite put out at this demand, as he knew the weapon would be used principally against mankind, whom he much loved. But a god's promise must be kept, so he said:
"It is granted you."
"Many thanks, most potent one!" cried the Bee, running the new-gained weapon in and out with much satisfaction.
Jupiter sternly cut short her thanks, and continued:
"In using this means of defense and offense you will imperil your own life, for the sting shall remain in the wound it makes and you shall die from the loss of it."
The Bee flew around for a moment, and then lit on the back of the god's neck.
"You will kindly reconsider that last clause," she said, "or," in a very meaning tone, "I die right here."
Jupiter felt a cold chill take its agitated way up his spinal column.
"All right," he said, hastily. "I don't want to be small about it. Have it your own way. Only please get off my neck!"
The Bee went joyously back to earth, humming a song of praise.
IMMORAL:
The Lion and the Boar.
One Sunday, when the new administration had induced a general thirst, a lion and a boar came at the same moment to a corner spring to drink.
"Have one with me," said the lion. "No, sir; this is on me," said the boar. From words they came to blows, and while they were in the press of combat the clock struck one A.M. and they had to go home cold-sober and disgusted.
IMMORAL:
Reform is just the thing for angels.
The Tiger and the Deer.
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