Aesop's Fables
A
WORKMAN, felling
wood by the side of a river, let his
axe drop - by
accident into a deep pool. Being thus
deprived of the means of his
livelihood, he sat down on the bank and
lamented his hard fate.
Mercury appeared and demanded the cause of his
tears. After he told him his
misfortune, Mercury plunged into the stream, and, bringing up a
golden axe, inquired if that were the one he had lost. On his saying that it was not his, Mercury disappeared beneath the water a second time, returned with a
silver axe in his hand, and again asked the Workman if it were his. When the Workman said it was not, he dived into the pool for the third time and brought up the axe that had been lost. The Workman claimed it and expressed his joy at its recovery. Mercury, pleased with his
honesty, gave him the golden and silver axes in addition to his own. The Workman, on his return to his house, related to his
companions all that had happened. One of them at once resolved to try and
secure the same
good fortune for himself. He ran to the river and
threw his axe on purpose into the pool at the same place, and sat down on the bank to
weep. Mercury appeared to him just as he hoped he would; and having learned the cause of his grief, plunged into the
stream and brought up a golden axe, inquiring if he had lost it. The Workman seized it greedily, and declared that truly it was the very same axe that he had lost. Mercury, displeased at his
knavery, not only took away the golden axe, but refused to recover for him the axe he had thrown into the pool.