St. Nicholas/Volume 40/Number 3/The Shepherd Boy and The Wolf

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St. Nicholas, Volume 40, Number 3 (1913)
translated by Charles Jay Budd
The Shepherd Boy and The Wolf
3946999St. Nicholas, Volume 40, Number 3 — The Shepherd Boy and The WolfCharles Jay Budd

OLD FABLES BROUGHT UP TO DATE

(Just for fun, and with apologies to Æsop)

THE SHEPHERD BOY AND THE WOLF


THE MODERN SHEPHERD BOY AND THE WOLF.

THE OLD-TIME FABLE

A Shepherd boy who watched a flock of sheep near a village brought out the villagers three or four times by crying out, “Wolf! Wolf!” and, when his neighbors came to help him, laughed at them for their pains. The wolf, however, did truly come at last. The shepherd boy, now really alarmed, shouted in an agony of terror: “Oh, good people, come and help me! Pray come and help me; the wolf is killing the sheep!” but, though they heard him, no one paid any heed to his cries.

Moral: There is no believing a falsifier, even when he speaks the truth.


THE FABLE BROUGHT UP TO DATE

A Shepherd boy had a flock of sheep to watch some distance from the nearest village. He cried “Wolf! Wolf!” but the villagers could not hear him. His master, being informed of this fact, had a “telephone service” installed, with a direct wire to his house. The wolf came! The boy telephoned. The master answered the call, armed himself with a repeating rifle, got into his 40 H. P. motor-car, raced to the pasture, killed the wolf, and thus saved his flock!

Moral: The “‘Phone’” is mightier than the Yell.