LION, GOAT , AND VULTURE
Aesop,retold by James Reeves
It was a hot day. Lion and Goat were both
thirsty, but
the pool was small. Goat bent down his head to drink, when Lion came up beside him and growled fiercely. ‘I shall drink first, ‘ I found the water. You can wait till I ‘ve finished.’
‘You’ll drink it all up,’ said Lion . ‘ there’s not very much left, and I am nearly dead with thirst.’
‘And I haven’t had a drop all day,’ answered Goat .
So they quarreled . Lion chased Goat to the top of greet rock, and hot as he was, Goat bounded out of the way. Neither of them was able to drink in peace.
Suddenly Lion stopped chasing Goat and looked up into the hot blue sky. Goat looked too. There , circling slowly above them, was
vulture. All the animals knew and feared him. He is the Bird of Death, who waits to pounce on the bodies of dead animals and eat their flesh. Lion and Goat knew, both at once, that if they did not stop fighting, they would die if thirst, and Vulture would pick their bodies to the bone.
‘If we go on
quarrelling,’ said lion, ‘we shall both die of thirst, and that will be the end of us. Go to the water and drink, but don’t take it all!’
Goat did as he was told, and the two animals quenched their thirst instead of fighting.
WHEN A COMMON DANGER THREATENS, IT IS BEST TO STOP QUARRELLING.