Æsop's fables in words of one syllable

A lark had a nest of young birds in a field of corn, and one day two men came to look at the state of the crop. “Well,” says one of them to his son, “I think this wheat is ripe, so now go and ask our friends to help us reap it.” When the old lark came back to her nest, the young brood told her, in a great fright, what they had heard. “So they look to their friends,” said she; “well, I think we have no cause to fear.” The next day the man of the farm came, and saw no friends in the corn field, so he bade his son fetch his kith and kin to help him. This the young birds heard, and told to the old one when she came home to her nest. Quoth she, “I do not see that men go much out of their way to help those that are of the same kith and kin.” In the course of a day or two, as the man found that no one came, he said to his son, “Hark you, John; we will trust to none, but you and I will reap the corn at dawn of day.” “Now,” said the old lark, “we must be gone; for when a man takes his work in his own hands, it is sure to be done.”

No eye so good as one’s own; no work so well done.

He that by the plow would thrive ... must hold or drive.