

The Owl and the Grasshopper.An Owl who was sitting in a hollow tree, dozing away a summer'safternoon, was very much disturbed by a rogue of a Grasshopper singingin the grass beneath. So far from keeping quiet, or moving away at therequest of the Owl, the Grasshopper sang all the more, and called her anold blinker, that only came out at night when all honest people had goneto bed. The Owl waited in silence for a time, and then artfullyaddressed the Grasshopper as follows: "Well, my dear, if one cannot beallowed to sleep, it is something to be kept awake by such a pleasantvoice. And now I think of it, I have a bottle of delicious nectar. Ifyou will come up, you shall have a drop." The silly Grasshopper, camehopping up to the Owl, who at once caught and killed him, and finishedher nap in comfort. Flattery is not a proof of admiration. From Aesop's Fables |