

The Ass and his Shadow.A traveler hired an Ass to convey him to a distant place. The day beingintensely hot, and the sun shining in its strength, the traveler stoppedto rest, and sought shelter from the heat under the Shadow of the Ass.As this afforded only protection for one, and as the traveler and theowner of the Ass both claimed it, a violent dispute arose between themas to which of them had the right to it. The owner maintained that hehad let the Ass only, and not his Shadow. The traveler asserted that hehad, with the hire of the Ass, hired his Shadow also. The quarrelproceeded from words to blows, and while the men fought the Ass gallopedoff. In quarreling about the shadow we often lose the substance. From Aesop's Fables |