Читать книгу Gobble-Up Stories - Oscar Mandel - Страница 17
ОглавлениеOne hand, they say, washes the other.
A crow was sitting on a branch with a piece of cheese in his bill when a hungry fox, drawn by the smell, stopped under the tree and spoke as follows: “Master Crow, I find you at last! How often your voice has brought down my tears when I heard it in the distance through the foliage! I beg you, sing a ditty for me now, so that I may taste, savor, and relish!”
This was an irresistible speech. The crow opened his beak, dropped the cheese, and cawed his creaky uttermost, high, middle, and low. “Enchanting!” cried the fox, who didn’t like to make enemies, “but, oh dear, what is this?”
“It’s a cheese I was about—” the crow began to answer, but the fox broke in passionately with, “A cheese? So it is. A vile Golgondola! It must not, it shall not beslobber your windpipe!” And picking it up with all his teeth, he gulped it down in a wink. “There,” he said, “I have removed the temptation. Your voice is saved.”
The crow thanked the fox, the fox thanked the crow, and they parted company in high spirits both. And why not? The fox had won a luscious cheese, the crow a glowing compliment, and neither is easy to come by in this world.
