Æsop’s fables… “Do not stand there pitying me!”

I was always so pleased when I received a book as a present when I was a child… in fact I still am! There is always a little thrill when a book shaped object is put into my hands, and I carefully take of the paper, prolonging the anticipation until all is revealed!

I was lucky as a child that I had aunties and godparents who indulged me in this way; one of the books which I was given by my godmother Daphne I still have, and although obviously well-loved and well read, it is still in good condition considering its age.

Æsop’s fables is a well-known collection of stories with a moral, which was supposed written or collected by a Greek slave called Æsop, who probably lived about two and a half thousand years ago! In my little book were the expected favourites  The Field of Treasure, The Fox and the Stork, The Goose and the Golden Egg, The Lion and the Mouse, The Dog in the Manger… and some which I look at now and don’t remember although I must have read them and had them read to me a dozen, no, several dozen times! The Stag at the Spring, The Fox in the Well… and others.

The illustrations by Helen Haywood are quite charming, but as a child, the anxious eyes of the animals always worried me. Looking at the pictures now, I love the comic details, the little mouse who rescues the lion is dressed as a tiny explorer, the cow peering at the dog in the manger is wearing elegant spectacles as well as a pretty bell.

As I read  them again now, I am struck by the way the moral of these tales is often still so true and relevant today, as in The Fox in the Well, when the drowning fox pleads with the wolf who is just standing by wondering what to do:

“Do not stand there pitying me! If you wish me well, you will lend me your help as quickly as possible. Pity is but poor comfort when one is up to the chin in cold water, and in danger every moment of either being drowned or starved!“