_THE_ _BANBURY CROSS_ _SERIES_ Prepared for children by Grace Rhys ÆSOP'S FABLES [Illustration] ÆSOP'S FABLES [Illustration] ILLUSTRATED BY CHARLES ROBINSON [Illustration] LONDON PUBLISHED BY IMDENT & CO AT ALDINE HOUSE OVER AGAINST GREAT EASTERN ST EC MDCCCXCV [Illustration] [Illustration] To Enid. Enid, this is Æsop's house, And the cover is the door; When the rains of winter pour, Then the Lion and the Mouse, And the Frogs that asked a king, And all the Beasts with curious features, That talk just like us human creatures, Open it, and ask you in! G. R. THE DAW IN BORROWED FEATHERS [Illustration: The Daw in Borrowed Feathers] A conceited jackdaw was vain enough to imagine that he wanted nothing but the coloured plumes to make him as beautiful a bird as the Peacock. Puffed up with this wise conceit, he dressed himself with a quantity of their finest feathers, and in this borrowed garb, leaving his old companions, tried to pass for a peacock; but he no sooner attempted to stray with these splendid birds, than an affected strut betrayed the sham. The offended peacocks fell upon him with their beaks, and soon stripped him of his finery. Having turned him again into a mere jackdaw, they drove him back to his brethren. [Illustration] But they, remembering what airs he had once given himself, would not permit him to flock with them again, and treated him with well-deserved contempt. [Illustration] THE SUN AND THE WIND [Illustration: The Sun and The Wind] [Illustrations]