The Ape Made King
The beasts once chose an ape for their king. From morn till night he would play all his droll tricks to please them, and they could not rest till they had put him on a throne, with a king’s crown on his head. They did all they could to swell his pomp, and the beasts took him to be as wise as he was great—all but the fox, who knew what a bad choice they had made. One day, as the fox was on his way to the court, he saw a trap in a ditch with nuts, figs, and dates for a bait. He told the ape of all these good things, and said that as they were found on a piece of waste land, they were the king’s by right. The ape, who did not dream of fraud, went to claim them; but as soon as he had laid his paw on the bait, he was caught in the trap. Stung with rage and pain, he gave the fox all the hard names he could think of; but all the fox said was, “Are you a king, and not up to trap?”