Horace Elisha Scudder

The Wolf and the Lamb

A Wolf saw a Lamb drinking at a brook, and set about finding some good reason for catching him. So he went to a place a little higher up the brook, and called out:—

"How dare you muddle the water that I am drinking?"

"How can I," said the Lamb, humbly, "when I drink with the tips of my lips only? And, besides, the water runs from you to me, not from me to you."

"Well, you called my father names a year ago," said the Wolf, finding another reason.

"I was not born a year ago," said the poor Lamb.

"You may make ever so good excuses," said the Wolf, finally; "I shall eat you all the same."

This fable teaches that, when one has made up his mind to do wrong, he is not stopped by the best of reasons.