Æsop's fables in words of one syllable

Chapter 81: THE WAR HORSE.

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About This Book

A collection of short, self-contained fables retold in simple monosyllabic language for young readers. Each brief tale stages animal characters in a single situation that leads to a clear outcome and an explicit moral, exploring themes such as honesty, pride, prudence, selfishness, and the consequences of deceit or folly. Lines are spare and direct, often paired with small illustrations, and the arrangement of discrete episodes emphasizes cause-and-effect and memorable aphorisms to make ethical lessons accessible and easy to discuss.

THE WAR HORSE.

There was a man who in time of war took great pains with his horse, and fed him on as much corn and hay as he could eat. But when the war was at an end all he gave him was chaff, and he put him to draw great loads of wood; in short, made a slave and a drudge of him. When the war broke out once more, and there was a call to arms, the man, clad in his coat of mail, sprang on the back of his steed, and went off to join the fight. But soon the horse fell down with all his weight of steel. “You must now go to the war on foot,” said he; “for if you turn me from a horse to an ass, how can you think that I can all at once turn from an ass to a horse?”