The Fox and the Crow

The Fox and the Crow

A crow, perched in a tree with a
piece of cheese in his beak, attracted
the eye and nose of a fox. "If you can
sing as prettily as you sit," said the
fox, "then you are the prettiest singer
within my scent and sight." The fox had
read somewhere, and somewhere, and
somewhere else, that praising the voice
of a crow with a cheese in his beak
would make him drop the cheese and
sing. But this is not what happened to
this particular crow in this particular
case.
"They say you are sly and they say
you are crazy," said the crow, having
carefully removed the cheese from
his beak with the claws of one foot,
"but you must be nearsighted as well.
Warblers wear gay hats and colored
jackets and bright vest, and they are
a dollar a hundred. I wear black and I
am unique.
"I am sure you are," said the fox,
who was neither crazy nor nearsighted,
but sly. "I recognize you, now that I
look more closely, as the most famed
and talented of all birds, and I fain
would hear you tell about yourself, but
I am hungry and must go."
"Tarry awhile," said the crow
quickly, "and share my lunch with
me." Whereupon he tossed the cunning
fox the lion's share of the cheese, and
began to tell about himself. "A ship
that sails without a crow's nest sails
to doom," he said. "Bars may come
and bars may go, but crow bars last
forever. I am the pioneer of flight, I am
the map maker. Last, but never least,
my flight is known to scientists and
engineers, geometricians, and scholar,
as the shortest distance between two
points. Any two points," he concluded
arrogantly.
"Oh, every two points, I am sure,"
said the fox. "And thank you for the
lion's share of what I know you could
not spare." And with this he trotted
away into the woods, his appetite
appeased, leaving the hungry crow
perched forlornly in the tree.
Taken from www.aesopfables.com