Fables of Æsop and Other Eminent Mythologists/Fable CCXIX
Fab. CCXIX.
A Nurse and a Wolfe.
AS a Wolfe was Hunting up and down for his Supper, he pass'd by a Door where a Little Child was Bawling, and an Old Woman Chiding it. Leave your Vixen-Tricks, says the Woman, or I'l throw ye to the Wolfe. The Wolfe Over-heard her, and Waited a pretty While, in hope the Woman would be as good as her Word; but No Child coming, away goes the Wolfe for That Bout. He took his Walk the Same Way again toward the Evening, and the Nurse he found had Chang’d her Note; for she was Then Muzzling, and Cokesing of it. That's a Good Dear, says she, If the Wolfe comes for My Child, We'll e'en Beat bis Brains out. The Wolfe went Muttering away upont. There's No Meddling with People, says he, that say One Thing and Mean Another.
The Moral.
REFLEXION.
THE Heart and Tongue of a Woman are commonly a Great way asunder. And it may bear Another Moral; which is, that ‘tis with Froward Men, and Froward Factions too, as ‘tis with Froward Children, They'll be sooner Quieted by Fear, and Rough Dealing, then by any Sense of Duty or Good Nature. There would be no Living in This World without Penal Laws, and Conditions. And Do or Do not, This or That at your Peril, is as Reasonable, and Necessary in Families as it is in Governments. It is a Truth Imprinted in the Hearts of All Mankind, that the Gibbets, Pillories, and the Whipping-Posts make more Converts then the Pulpits: As the Child did more here for fear of the Wolfe, then for the Love of the Nurse.