The Aesop for Children  by Milo Winter

The Dogs and the Fox

Some Dogs found the skin of a Lion and furiously began to tear it with their teeth. A Fox chanced to see them and laughed scornfully.

"If that Lion had been alive," he said, "it would have been a very different story. He would have made you feel how much sharper his claws are than your teeth.

It is easy and also contemptible to kick a man that is down.