The Wolf and the Lamb (Aesop's Fables)
The Wolf and the Lamb (Alfred Caldecott's Version)
A Wolf seeing a Lamb drinking at a brook, took it into his head that he would find some plausible excuse for eating him. So he drew near, and, standing higher up the stream, began to accuse him of disturbing the water and preventing him from drinking.
The Lamb replied that he was only touching the water with the tips of his lips; and that, besides, seeing that he was standing down stream, he could not possibly be disturbing the water higher up. So the Wolf, having done no good by that accusation, said: "Well, but last year you insulted my Father." The Lamb replying that at that time he was not born, the Wolf wound up by saying: "However ready you may be with your answers, I shall none the less make a meal of you."
(From the book Some of Æsop's Fables with Modern Instances Shewn in Designs by Randolph Caldecott, from New Translations by Alfred Caldecott, M.A., with the Engravings by J. D. Cooper — Public Domain)
The Wolf and the Lamb (Joseph Jacobs's Version)
Once upon a time a Wolf was lapping at a spring on a hillside, when, looking up, what should he see but a Lamb just beginning to drink a little lower down. “There’s my supper,” thought he, “if only I can find some excuse to seize it.” Then he called out to the Lamb, “How dare you muddle the water from which I am drinking?”
“Nay, master, nay,” said Lambikin; “if the water be muddy up there, I cannot be the cause of it, for it runs down from you to me.”
“Well, then,” said the Wolf, “why did you call me bad names this time last year?”
“That cannot be,” said the Lamb; “I am only six months old.”
“I don’t care,” snarled the Wolf; “if it was not you it was your father;” and with that he rushed upon the poor little Lamb and
WARRA WARRA WARRA WARRA WARRA
ate her all up. But before she died she gasped out—
“Any excuse will serve a tyrant.”
(From the book The Fables of Aesop: Selected, Told Anew, and Their History Traced by Joseph Jacobs, done into pictures by Richard Heighway — Public Domain)
The Wolf and the Lamb (George Fyler Townsend's Version)
Wolf, meeting with a Lamb astray from the fold, resolved not to lay violent hands on him, but to find some plea to justify to the Lamb the Wolf’s right to eat him. He thus addressed him: “Sirrah, last year you grossly insulted me.” “Indeed,” bleated the Lamb in a mournful tone of voice, “I was not then born.” Then said the Wolf, “You feed in my pasture.” “No, good sir,” replied the Lamb, “I have not yet tasted grass.” Again said the Wolf, “You drink of my well.” “No,” exclaimed the Lamb, “I never yet drank water, for as yet my mother’s milk is both food and drink to me.” Upon which the Wolf seized him and ate him up, saying, “Well! I won’t remain supperless, even though you refute every one of my imputations.” The tyrant will always find a pretext for his tyranny.
(From the book Three Hundred Æsop’s Fables Literally Translated from the Greek by the Rev. George Fyler Townsend, M.A. — Public Domain)
The Wolf and the Lamb (V. S. Vernon Jones's Version)
A Wolf came upon a Lamb straying from the flock, and felt some compunction about taking the life of so helpless a creature without some plausible excuse; so he cast about for a grievance and said at last, "Last year, sirrah, you grossly insulted me." "That is impossible, sir," bleated the Lamb, "for I wasn't born then." "Well," retorted the Wolf, "you feed in my pastures." "That cannot be," replied the Lamb, "for I have never yet tasted grass." "You drink from my spring, then," continued the Wolf. "Indeed, sir," said the poor Lamb, "I have never yet drunk anything but my mother's milk." "Well, anyhow," said the Wolf, "I'm not going without my dinner": and he sprang upon the Lamb and devoured it without more ado.
(From the book Aesop's Fables: A New Translation by V. S. Vernon Jones, with an introduction by G. K. Chesterton and illustrations by Arthur Rackham — Public Domain)
The Wolf and the Lamb (Milo Winter's Version)
A stray Lamb stood drinking early one morning on the bank of a woodland stream. That very same morning a hungry Wolf came by farther up the stream, hunting for something to eat. He soon got his eyes on the Lamb. As a rule Mr. Wolf snapped up such delicious morsels without making any bones about it, but this Lamb looked so very helpless and innocent that the Wolf felt he ought to have some kind of an excuse for taking its life.
"How dare you paddle around in my stream and stir up all the mud!" he shouted fiercely. "You deserve to be punished severely for your rashness!"
"But, your highness," replied the trembling Lamb, "do not be angry! I cannot possibly muddy the water you are drinking up there. Remember, you are upstream and I am downstream."
"You do muddy it!" retorted the Wolf savagely. "And besides, I have heard that you told lies about me last year!"
"How could I have done so?" pleaded the Lamb. "I wasn't born until this year."
"If it wasn't you, it was your brother!"
"I have no brothers."
"Well, then," snarled the Wolf, "It was someone in your family anyway. But no matter who it was, I do not intend to be talked out of my breakfast."
And without more words the Wolf seized the poor Lamb and carried her off to the forest.
The tyrant can always find an excuse for his tyranny.
The unjust will not listen to the reasoning of the innocent.
(From the book The Æsop for Children, with pictures by Milo Winter — Public Domain)
The Wolf and the Lamb (J. H. Stickney's Version)
One day a Wolf and a Lamb happened to come at the same time to drink from a brook that ran down the side of the mountain.
The Wolf wished very much to eat the Lamb, but meeting her as he did, face to face, he thought he must find some excuse for doing so.
So he began by trying to pick a quarrel, and said angrily: “How dare you come to my brook and muddy the water so that I cannot drink it? What do you mean?”
The Lamb, very much alarmed, said gently: “I do not see how it can be that[4] I have spoiled the water. You stand higher up the stream, and the water runs from you to me, not from me to you.”
“Be that as it may,” said the Wolf, with a snarl, “you are a rascal all the same, for I have heard that last year you said bad things of me behind my back.”
“Dear Mr. Wolf,” cried the poor Lamb, “that could not be, for a year ago I was not born; I am only six months old.”
Finding it of no use to argue any more, the Wolf began to snarl and show his teeth. Coming closer to the Lamb, he said, “You little wretch, if it was not you it was your father, so it’s all the same”; and he pounced upon the poor Lamb and ate her up.
The Wolf and the Lamb (J. H. Stickney's Version)
A Wolf and a Lamb came to a running brook to quench their thirst. The Wolf stood high up the stream and the Lamb a little distance below. Having made up his mind to seize the Lamb, the Wolf bethought himself how he might justify his act of violence. Running down to her, he roared, “How dare you muddle the water so that I cannot drink it?”
The Lamb, affrighted by the charge, humbly replied that she could not see how that could be, since the water ran down from him to her and not from her to him. “Be that as it may,” retorted the Wolf. “You are a rascal, all the same, and I have heard that you said bad things of me last year behind my back.”
“Nay,” said the Lamb, “that could not have been, for a year ago I was not born.”
“Well, if it was not you it was your father, and that is all the same,” replied the Wolf, and he fell upon the Lamb and tore her to pieces.
(From the book Æsop’s Fables: A Version for Young Readers by J. H. Stickney, illustrated by Charles Livingston Bull — Public Domain)
The Wolf and the Lamb (Samuel Croxall's Version)
One hot, sultry day, a Wolf and a Lamb happened to come, just at the same time, to quench their thirst in the stream of a clear, silver brook that ran tumbling down the side of a rocky mountain. The Wolf stood upon the higher ground, and the Lamb at some distance from him down the current. However, the Wolf, having a mind to pick a quarrel with him, asked him, what he meant by disturbing the water, and making it so muddy that he could not drink? and, at the same time demanded satisfaction. The Lamb, frightened at this threatening charge, told him, in a tone as mild as possible, that, with humble submission, he could not conceive how that could be; since the water which he drank, ran down from the Wolf to him, and therefore it could not be disturbed so far up the stream. 'Be that as it will,' replies the Wolf, 'you are a rascal, and I have been told that you treated me with ill language, behind my back, about half a year ago.'—'Upon my word,' says the Lamb, 'the time you mention was before I was born.' The Wolf, finding it to no purpose to argue any longer against truth, fell into a great passion, snarling and foaming at the mouth, as if he had been mad; and drawing nearer to the Lamb, 'Sirrah,' says he, 'if it was not you, it was your father, and that is all one.'—So he seized the poor innocent, helpless thing, tore it to pieces, and made a meal of it.
Application
The thing which is pointed at in this fable is so obvious, that it will be impertinent to multiply words about it. When a cruel ill-natured man has a mind to abuse one inferior to himself, either in power or courage, though he has not given the least occasion for it, how does he resemble the Wolf! whose envious, rapacious temper could not bear to see innocence live quietly in its neighbourhood. In short, wherever ill people are in power, innocence and integrity are sure to be persecuted: the more vicious the community is, the better countenance they have for their own villanous measures. To practise honesty in bad times, is being liable to suspicion enough; but if any one should dare to prescribe it, it is ten to one but he would be impeached of high crimes and misdemeanors: for to stand up for justice in a degenerate and corrupt state, is tacitly to upbraid the government, and seldom fails of pulling down vengeance upon the head of him that offers to stir in its defence. Where cruelty and malice are in combination with power, nothing is so easy as for them to find a pretence to tyrannize over innocence, and exercise all manner of injustice.
(From the book Æsop's Fables, Embellished with One Hundred and Eleven Emblematical Devices. Translator: Samuel Croxall — Public Domain)
The Wolf and the Lamb (Thomas Bewick's Version)
One hot sultry day, a Wolf and a Lamb happened to come just at the same time, to quench their thirst in the stream of a brook that fell tumbling down the side of a rocky mountain. The Wolf stood upon the higher ground, and the Lamb at some distance below him. However, the Wolf, having a mind to pick a quarrel with the Lamb, asked him what he meant by disturbing the water, and making it so muddy that he could not drink? and, at the same time, demanded satisfaction. The Lamb, frightened at this threatening charge, told him, in a tone as mild as possible, that with humble submission, he could not conceive how that could be, since the water which he drank ran down from the Wolf to him, and therefore could not be disturbed so far up the stream. Be that as it may, replies the Wolf, you are a rascal, and I have been told that you used ill language concerning me behind my back, about half a year ago. Upon my word, says the Lamb, the time you mention was before I was born. The Wolf, finding it to no purpose to argue any longer against truth, fell into a great passion, snarling and foaming at the mouth as if he had been mad; and drawing nearer to the Lamb, Sirrah, says he, if it were not you, it was your father, and that is the same. So he seized the poor innocent helpless thing, tore it to pieces, and made a meal of it.
Application
They who do not feel the sentiments of humanity, will seldom listen to the voice of reason; and when cruelty and injustice are armed with power, and determined on oppression, the strongest pleas of innocence are preferred in vain, and nothing is more easy than finding pretences to criminate the unsuspecting victims of tyranny. How many of the degenerate, corrupt, and arbitrary governments with which the civilized world has been disfigured, have exercised their vengeance upon the honest and virtuous, who have dared in bad times to speak the truth; and how many men in private life are to be met with, whose wolfish dispositions, and envious and rapacious tempers cannot bear to see honest industry rear its head!
(From the book The Fables of Æsop, and Others, with designs on wood by Thomas Bewick — Public Domain).