A Wolf once got a bone stuck in his throat.  So he went to a Crane and begged her to put her long bill down his throat and pull it out.  “I’ll make it worth your while,” he added.  The Crane did as she was asked, and got the bone out quite easily.  The Wolf thanked her warmly, and was just turning away, when she cried, “What about that fee of mine?” “Well, what about it?” snapped the Wolf, baring his teeth as he spoke; “you can go about boasting that you once put your head into a Wolf’s mouth and didn’t get it bitten off.  What more do you want?”

THE EAGLE, THE CAT, AND THE WILD SOW

An Eagle built her nest at the top of a high tree; a Cat with her family occupied a hollow in the trunk half-way down; and a Wild Sow and her young took up their quarters at the foot.  They might have got on very well as neighbours had it not been for the evil cunning of the Cat.  Climbing up to the Eagle’s nest she said to the Eagle, “You and I are in the greatest possible danger.  That dreadful creature, the Sow, who is always to be seen grubbing away at the foot of the tree, means to uproot it, that she may devour your family and mine at her ease.”  Having thus driven the Eagle almost out of her senses with terror, the Cat climbed down the tree, and said to the Sow, “I must warn you against that dreadful bird, the Eagle.  She is only waiting her chance to fly down and carry off one of your little pigs when you take them out, to feed her brood with.”  She succeeded in frightening the Sow as much as the Eagle.  Then she returned to her hole in the trunk, from which, feigning to be afraid, she never came forth by day.  Only by night did she creep out unseen to procure food for her kittens.  The Eagle, meanwhile was afraid to stir from her nest, and the Sow dared not leave her home among the roots:  so that in time both they and their families perished of hunger, and their dead bodies supplied the Cat with ample food for her growing family.

THE WOLF AND THE SHEEP

A Wolf was worried and badly bitten by dogs, and lay a long time for dead.  By and by he began to revive, and, feeling very hungry, called out to a passing Sheep and said, “Would you kindly bring me some water from the stream close by?  I can manage about meat, if only I could get something to drink.”  But this Sheep was no fool.  “I can quite understand”, said he, “that if I brought you the water, you would have no difficulty about the meat.  Good-morning.”

THE TUNNY-FISH AND THE DOLPHIN

A Tunny-fish was chased by a Dolphin and splashed through the water at a great rate, but the Dolphin gradually gained upon him, and was just about to seize him when the force of his flight carried the Tunny on to a sandbank.  In the heat of the chase the Dolphin followed him, and there they both lay out of the water, gasping for dear life.  When the Tunny saw that his enemy was doomed like himself, he said, “I don’t mind having to die now:  for I see that he who is the cause of my death is about to share the same fate.”