Aesop's Fables

Short Stories for Children Text by Aesop Illustrated by Jessica Johnson

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PEACOCK, puffed up with vanity, met a Crane one day, and to impress him spread his gorgeous tail in the Sun. “Look,” he said. “What have you to compare with this? I am dressed in all the glory of the rainbow, while your feathers are gray as dust!”

The Crane spread his broad wings and flew up toward the sun.

Follow me if you can,” he said. But the Peacock stood where he was among the birds of the barnyard, while the Crane soared in freedom far up into the blue sky.

The greater the pride, the further the fall.

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LION lay asleep in the forest, his great head resting on his paws. A timid little Mouse came upon him unexpectedly, and in her fright and haste to get away, ran across the Lion’s nose. Roused from his nap, the Lion laid his huge paw angrily on the tiny creature to kill her.

“Spare me!” begged the poor Mouse. “Please let me go and some day I will surely repay you.”

The Lion was much amused to think that a Mouse could ever help him. But he was generous and finally let the Mouse go.

Some days later, while stalking his prey in the forest, the Lion was caught in the toils of a hunter’s net. Unable to free himself, he filled the forest with his angry roaring. The Mouse knew the voice and quickly found the Lion struggling in the net.

Running to one of the great ropes that bound him, she gnawed it until it parted, and soon the Lion was free.

“You laughed when I said I would repay you,” said the Mouse. “Now you see that even a Mouse can help a Lion.”

A Kindness is Never Wasted

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NE bright day in late autumn a family of Ants were bustling about in the warm sunshine, dry ing out the grain they had stored up during the summer, when a starving Grasshopper, his fiddle under his arm, came up and humbly begged for a bite to eat.

"What!" cried the Ants in surprise, "haven't you stored anything away for the winter? What in the world were you doing all last summer?"

"I didn't have time to store up any food," whined the Grasshopper; "I was so busy making music that before I knew it the summer was gone.

The Ants shrugged their shoulders in disgust.

"Making music, were you?" they cried. "Very well; now dance!"

And they turned their backs on the Grasshopper and went on with their work.

There’s a Time for Work and a Time for Play

Aesop’s Fables or the Aesopica is a collection of fables credited to Aesop, a slave and storyteller believed to have lived in ancient Greece between 620 and 560 BCE. Of diverse origins, the stories associated with Aesop’s name have descended to modern times through a number of sources. They continue to be reinterpreted in different verbal registers and in popular as well as artistic mediums.

This version of Aesop’s Fables was created to illustrate a selection of the Seven Virtues- Diligence, Humility, Kindness, Charity, Chastity, Temperance, and Patience.

Its text comes from the original source material, and is illustrated by Jessica Johnson.