The Wolf and the Lamb

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.