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Three Hundred Æsop's Fables/The Lion, the Bear, and the Fox

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London: George Routledge and Sons, page 107


THE LION, THE BEAR, AND THE FOX.

A Lion and a Bear seized upon a kid at the same moment, and fought fiercely for its possession. When they had fearfully lacerated each other, and were faint from the long combat, they lay down exhausted with fatigue. A Fox, who had gone round them at a distance several times, saw them both stretched on the ground, and the Kid lying untouched in the middle, ran in between them, and seizing the Kid, scampered off as fast as he could. The Lion and the Bear saw him, but not being able to get up, said, "Woe betide us, that we should have fought and belaboured ourselves only to serve the turn of a Fox!"

It sometimes happens that one man has all the toil, and another all the profit.