An Eagle sat high in the branches of a great Oak. She seemed very sad and drooping
for
an Eagle. A Kite saw her.
"Why do you look so woebegone?" asked the Kite.
"I want to get married," replied the Eagle, "and I can't find a mate who can provide for me as I
should like."
"Take me," said the Kite; "I am very strong, stronger even than you!"
"Do you really think you can provide for me?" asked the Eagle eagerly.
"Why, of course," replied the Kite. "That would be a very simple matter. I am so strong I can
carry
away an Ostrich in my talons as if it were a feather!"
The Eagle accepted the Kite immediately. But after the wedding, when the Kite flew away to find
something to eat for his bride, all he had when he returned, was a tiny Mouse.
"Is that the Ostrich you talked about?" said the Eagle in disgust.
"To win you I would have said and promised anything," replied the Kite.
A Beetle once begged the Eagle to spare a Hare which had run to her for
protection.
But the Eagle pounced upon her prey, the sweep of her great wings tumbling the Beetle a dozen
feet
away. Furious at the disrespect shown her, the Beetle flew to the Eagle's nest and rolled out
the
eggs. Not one did she spare. The Eagle's grief and anger knew no bounds, but who had done the
cruel
deed she did not know.
Next year the Eagle built her nest far up on a mountain crag; but the Beetle found it and again
destroyed the eggs. In despair the Eagle now implored great Jupiter to let her place her eggs in
his
lap. There none would dare harm them. But the Beetle buzzed about Jupiter's head, and made him
rise
to drive her away; and the eggs rolled from his lap.
Now the Beetle told the reason for her action, and Jupiter had to acknowledge the justice of her
cause. And they say that ever after, while the Eagle's eggs lie in the nest in spring, the
Beetle
still sleeps in the ground. For so Jupiter commanded.
An Eagle, swooping down on powerful wings, seized a lamb in her talons and made
off
with it to her nest. A Jackdaw saw the deed, and his silly head was filled with the idea that he
was
big and strong enough to do as the Eagle had done. So with much rustling of feathers and a
fierce
air, he came down swiftly on the back of a large Ram. But when he tried to rise again he found
that
he could not get away, for his claws were tangled in the wool. And so far was he from carrying
away
the Ram, that the Ram hardly noticed he was there.
The Shepherd saw the fluttering Jackdaw and at once guessed what had happened. Running up, he
caught
the bird and clipped its wings. That evening he gave the Jackdaw to his children.
"What a funny bird this is!" they said laughing, "what do you call it, father?"
"That is a Jackdaw, my children. But if you should ask him, he would say he is an Eagle."
Laurina Clerc
Aesop's fables.