UNFOLDING AESOP’S FABLES
Published in an edition of one copy as part of a student assignment for Publication Design 305, Emily Carr University of Art + Design Illustrations Š Jayde Chang Text Š http://www.gutenberg.org/ All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means without prior written permission of the publisher. Design by Jayde Chang Printed in Canada
UNFOLDING AESOP’S FABLES by Jayde Chang
Aesop's Fables is a collection of fables credited to Aesop, a slave and story-teller believed to have lived in ancient Greece between 620 and 560 BCE. Of diverse origins, the stories associated with Aesop's name have descended to modern times through a number of sources.
CON T EN T
T HE CROW AND THE PITCHER
T HE GOOSE A ND T HE GOL DEN EGG
THE JACKDAW AND THE PEACOCKS
In a pinch a good use of our wits may help us out.
T HE CROW AND THE PITCHER
T
HE THIRSTY CROW found a pitcher with a little water in it. But the pitcher was high and had a narrow neck, and no matter how he tried, the Crow could not reach the water. The poor thing felt as if he must die of thirst.
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THEN AN IDEA CAME to him. Picking up some small pebbles, he dropped them into the pitcher one by one. With each pebble the water rose a little higher until at last it was near enough so he could drink.
T HE GOOSE
AND THE GOLDEN EGG Those who have plenty want more and so lose all they have.
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T
HERE WAS ONCE a countryman who possessed the most wonderful Goose you can imagine, for every day when he visited the nest, the Goose had laid a beautiful, glittering, golden egg.
HE TOOK THE EGG to market and soon began to get rich. But it was not long before he grew impatient with the Goose because she gave him only a single golden egg a day. He was not getting rich fast enough.
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ONE DAY AFTER HE finished counting his money, the idea came to him that he could get all the golden eggs at once by unfolding the Goose open. But when the deed was done, not a single golden egg did he find, and his precious Goose was no more.
T HE JACK DAW AND THE PEACOCKS Borrowed feathers do not make fine birds.
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T
HE BLACK JACKDAW was not a very handsome bird,
nor very refined in manner. Yet he imagined that all he needed to make himself fit for the society of the Peacocks was a dress like theirs. So he picked up some castoff feathers of the Peacocks and stuck them among his own black plumes.
DRESSED IN HIS borrowed finery he strutted loftily among the birds of his own kind. Then he flew down into the garden among the Peacocks. But they soon saw who he was. Angry at the cheat, they flew at him, plucking away the borrowed feathers and also some of his own.
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THE POOR JACKDAW returned sadly to his former companions. There another unpleasant surprise awaited him. They had not forgotten his superior airs toward them, and, to punish him, they drove him away with a rain of pecks and jeers.