THE EAGLE AND THE FOX

An eagle and a fox long lived together as good neighbors, the eagle at the top of a high tree and the fox in a hole at the foot of it. One day, however, while the fox was away, the eagle, seeking a tender morsel for her nest full of young ones, swooped down upon the fox’s cub and carried it away to her nest.

The fox, on her return home, upbraided the eagle for this breach of friendship, and pleaded with the eagle to return the cub to her den. But the eagle, feeling sure that her own brood high up in their treetop nest were safe from any possible revenge, ignored the entreaties of the cub’s mother.

Quickly running to the place where she knew an altar fire to be burning, the fox snatched a brand and hurried back to the tree. The mother eagle, who was just on the point of tearing the cub to pieces to feed to her babies, looked down and saw that the fox was going to set fire to the tree and burn it and her nest and eaglets to ashes.

“Hold on, dear neighbor!” she screamed. “Don’t set fire to our tree. I’ll bring back your cub to you safe and sound!”

Application: Do to others, as you want them to do to you.

(From Aesop’s Fables: is a collection of fables credited to Aesop, a slave and storyteller believed to have lived in ancient Greece between 620 and 564 BC.)

“So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.” Jesus