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Group Four
31 The brash gnat
32 The enemy's trumpeter
33 A tortoise dies
34 A doomed man
35 The scorpion stings
36 A wolf finds reasons
37 The stork chooses
38 The tricky wolf
39 A donkey thinks
40 A patient dies
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31. A Brash Gnat Loses His Life
There once was a gnat as brash could be
Who challenged a lion far larger than he
To fight him and test
Which of them was best --
Then blew on his horn and attacked like a bee.
He flew in his nostrils and buzzed in his ears,
He stung both his eyelids which brought him to tears,
Poor lion would claw
His own face with his paw!
But the gnat flew away without trouble or fears.
A victory for me!
sang the gnat feeling proud
While he blew on his bugle & challenged the crowd
But before any fought him
A spider's web caught him,
And no one could help -- though he cried very loud:
How foolish it was for a gnat to be tryin'
To gain a dumb victory over a
lion!
One minute, I'm winner,
Then next, spider's dinner!
Believe me, there's nothin'
quite so mortifin'!
MORAL: Often size is not decisive in conflict.
from the book Praying Your Story and the forthcoming book Aesop's Best: 80 Fables in Verse by William Cleary
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