Aesop's Fables
AN
EAGLE and a
Fox formed an
intimate friendship and decided to live near each other. The Eagle built her nest in the
branches of a tall
tree, while the Fox crept into the
underwood and there produced her young. Not long after they had agreed upon this plan, the Eagle, being in want of
provision for her young ones,
swooped down while the Fox was out, seized upon one of the little cubs, and
feasted herself and her brood. The Fox on her return, discovered what had happened, but was less grieved for the death of her young than for her inability to
avenge them. A just
retribution, however, quickly fell upon the Eagle. While hovering near an
altar, on which some
villagers were
sacrificing a
goat, she suddenly seized a piece of the
flesh, and carried it, along with a
burning cinder, to her nest. A strong
breeze soon fanned the
spark into a
flame, and the
eaglets, as yet
unfledged and helpless, were
roasted in their nest and dropped down dead at the bottom of the tree. There, in the sight of the Eagle, the Fox
gobbled them up.