Aesop's Fables "L"! 1-12-16

Giddyap, Jeff!!  The new year's a-waiting on you!  It's already the 12th!

OK.  OK.  Here you go.  A couple more Aesop's Fables doodles, this time from the "L" column.  Lotsa lions here, it turns out.

S'OK.  Lions are fun to draw.

Playing with settings on my scanner.  The colors don't come out just right, but then again, colored pencils aren't really the best for reproduction.  I'll probably digitally color if the goes further.  

And why shouldn't it?

"The Lion and the Mouse"

An old standby to be sure that I'm certain we've all heard before, but such a worthwhile moral.

A Lion was lying in the forest asleep when he was annoyingly awakened by a small mouse running back and forth over his face, down his back and through his mane.  He awoke ferociously and caught the mouse and just before he killed it, the mouse begged him not to.  The Mouse said, "Forgive me this time and I shall never forget it.  You never know when I just may be able to return the favor."

The Lion thought that was pretty damn funny.  How could this little bugger ever help him?  He was so tickled by the notion that he let the Mouse go free.

Some time later the Lion was caught in a trap and the hunters who had laid the trap tied him to a tree so that they could carry him alive to the King and went to find a wagon.  While they were gone, the Mouse heard the Lion's cries and came to his aid and gnawed and chewed apart the ropes that bound the Lion and set him free.

MORAL:

"No act of kindness, however small, is EVER wasted"

or

"Little friends may prove GREAT friends"

True dat.  Now here's one that was less familiar to me, that I really dug when I read it.

"The Lion, the Ass and the Fox"

A Lion, an Ass and a Fox one day decided to combine their efforts and help each other in pursuit of a booty of treasure.  After succeeding in their task and with their prize before them, the Lion asked the Ass to divide the profits up fairly.  The Ass took great pains and great time to evenly divide what they had equally as possible and presented the 3 stacks to the others, then kindly deferred to the Lion to choose which he wanted, to show all fairness.

The Lion went into a rage and roared and gnashed his teeth and then killed and devoured the Ass.  He then turned to the Fox and said, "There are only 2 of us now.  Why don't you divide our treasure up in fair and equal parts and we shall take what's ours.

The Fox took great time and care to divide their gains into two stacks.  One stack held the smallest possible bit, the tiniest morsel, one part of one part and the other pile held all the rest.  99.9999% of all they had worked for, which he then presented to the Lion.

"The Lion grinned and complimented the Fox.  "Very good, my friend!  Whoever taught you the power of division has done a wonderful job.  You are perfect to a fraction!".  The Fox answered, "I learned it from the Ass by watching his fate."

MOTTO:

"Happy is the man who learns from the misfortunes of others."

Coupla good 'uns there.

Talk to you soon.