"Gods," she prayed, "make the hole bigger. I'll never ask for anything again!"
Behold, the hole became bigger, and the fox went in.
She grabbed a chicken, but then she saw a dog running at her. She jumped back out of the hole. "Gods, please make the hole smaller! And no more prayers, I promise!"
Behold, the hole became smaller; the dog was trapped, and the fox escaped with her chicken.
People's prayers are liable to change, depending on circumstances.
Inspired by: Mille Fabulae et Una, a collection of Latin fables that I've edited, free to read online. I am not translating the Latin here; instead, I am just telling a 100-word version of the fable.
Notes: This is fable 35 in the book, which is not in Perry's catalog; it is a fable from Abstemius.
Lovely. And the prayer was answered both times! Many fables tend to be a bit more heavy handed, killing our animal hero to underscore the moral.
ReplyDeleteI am glad you liked it! And when I taught folktale classes, the students wrote their own versions -- often that was exactly what they did, finding a way to make the fable still feel like the fable, but without anyone paying a fatal price for their mistake, whatever it might be! :-)
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