The Tortoise and the Eagle

: Aesop's Fables

A TORTOISE, lazily basking in the sun, complained to the

sea-birds of her hard fate, that no one would teach her to fly.

An Eagle, hovering near, heard her lamentation and demanded what

reward she would give him if he would take her aloft and float

her in the air. "I will give you," she said, "all the riches of

the Red Sea." "I will teach you to fly then," said the Eagle; and

taking her up in his talons he carried her almost to the clouds

suddenly he let her go, and she fell on a lofty mountain, dashing

her shell to pieces. The Tortoise exclaimed in the moment of

death: "I have deserved my present fate; for what had I to do

with wings and clouds, who can with difficulty move about on the

earth?'



If men had all they wished, they would be often ruined.



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