A FOX and a goose were very great friends. The goose, which, as you know, is a very honest and industrious bird, said to the fox:—
“Friend fox, I have a little bit of property here, and if you like to join with me, we will cultivate it between us.”
“That would greatly please me,” answered the fox.
“Then it will be necessary to till it together when the season arrives,” said the goose.
“Very well,” replied the fox.
A little afterwards, when they met, the goose said:—
“It is time to sow the seed.”
That is your business,” said the fox, “I have nothing to do with that.”
Some months passed, when the goose said to the fox:—
“Friend, the grass is choking the wheat; it is necessary to weed the field.”
“Very well,” answered the fox, “you see to that; it is not my business.”
A short time passed by, when the goose said to the fox:—
“Friend, the wheat is ripe and must be reaped.”
“All right,” replied the fox, “you attend to that; it is not my business.”
Then the goose, for all its good nature, began to be distrustful, and told its friend the greyhound what had passed;
The greyhound, who was very shrewd, saw at once that the fox was going to play off one of its tricks upon the goose’s good nature, and said to it:—
“Reap the wheat; put it in the barn, and hide me in a sheaf of corn, without leaving more than one eye uncovered, so that I may see all that may happen.”
The goose did as the greyhound had said; and after a time the fox arrived, and when it saw the bam filled with splendid wheat already thrashed, it was very delighted, and, dancing about, sang:—
“Lio, lio,
The straw and the wheat are mine!
Lio, lio,
The straw and the wheat are mine!”
As it said this, it approached the sheaf in which the greyhound was concealed, and on seeing the eye among the straw, said—
“Ah, there’s a grape!”
“But it is not ripe,” replied the greyhound, as it leaped out of its hiding-place, and killed the fox.
