AN OWL AND GRASSHOPPER

THE OWL AND THE GRASSHOPPER

THE OWL always  sleeps during the day. Then, after sundown, when the  light fades from the sky and the shadows rise slowly through the woods,  she comes out, ruffling and blinking, from the old hollow tree. Now her weird "hoo-hoo-hoo-oo-oo" sound echoes through the quiet forest, and she begins her hunt for the bugs and beetles, frogs and mice she likes  to eat.

Now there was a certain old Owl who had become very cross and hard to please as she grew older, especially if anything disturbed her daily slumbers. One warm summer afternoon as she dozed away in her den in the old oak tree, a Grasshopper nearby began a joyous but very discordant song. Out came the old Owl's head from the opening in the tree that served her both for door and for window.

"Get away from here, sir," she said to the Grasshopper. "Have you no manners? You should at least respect my age and leave me to sleep in peace!"

But the Grasshopper answered  that he had as much right to his place in the sun as the Owl had to her place in the old oak.  Then he struck up a louder and still more discordant tune.

The wise old Owl knew quite well that it would do no good to argue with the Grasshopper, nor with anybody else for that matter. Besides, her eyes were not sharp enough by day to permit her to punish the Grasshopper as he deserved. So she laid aside all hard words and spoke very kindly to him.

"Well sir," she said, "if I must stay awake, I am going to settle down and enjoy your singing. Now that I think of it, I have a wonderful wine here,  which I got from the finest winery. I am told that when someone drinks this wine he can sing more beautifully than ever. Please come up and taste this delicious drink with me.

The foolish Grasshopper was taken in by the Owl's flattering words. Up he jumped to the Owl's den, but as soon as he was near enough so the old Owl could see him clearly, she pounced upon him and ate him up.

Moral: Flattery is not a proof of true admiration.