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The boy who cried wolf

When I was a lad, my father used to send me out to the fields each day to watch over his sheep. Hey now! There are worse jobs than sitting out in the fresh air all day, but it was boring work for a lad. I longed to be running around with my friends, playing ball, or making boyish mischief. “Can’t the sheep look after themselves?” I asked my father. “After all, they know how to bleat and munch grass, but there isn’t much else that they do.” Father said it was important work, and most importantly of all, I must keep my eyes peeled for the wolf – in case he came sneaking into the fields and grabbed one of the spring lambs. I couldn’t even go to sleep. I had to sit and keep a sharp look out. After a few weeks of this, I got so bored that I began to wish that the wolf would show up and give me something to do. Then I got thinking to myself: “Let’s liven things up a bit,” I thought. “Let’s play a trick on the villagers.” So I got up and ran as fast as I could into the village shouting at the...
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Four Aesop fables

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Some people say that rats are ugly creatures. When they see a rat running along, they go ee-yuck! Well I don’t know about you, but I’ve always thought that this was rather rude. Rats can have hurt feelings too you know! In any case, when I catch sight of my reflection in a stream, I think I’m rather cute. Just recently, I was trotting along the King’s Highway, in my sweet little way, when I heard a great commotion on the road up ahead. Who or what is causing all that fuss? I wondered. When I got closer, I saw the King himself, riding along on top of a great fat lump of an elephant. The crowd of onlookers were ooo-ing and aah-ing full of admiration for that stupid beast with a nose that’s far too big for her face. She’s much uglier than me, I thought. So I started to spring up and down and say: “Hey everyone! Why not look at me? I’m such a cutie-pie! I could join the King’s household and be a royal rat, if only there was any justice in the world.” At first, nobody noticed me...
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Androcles and the lion

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A slave runs away from his master and hides in the woods – then finds himself face to face with a limping lion… The tale of Androcles and the Lion is said to have been written by Aesop – the great Greek storyteller who always summed up his stories from the animal kingdom with a moral. In the case of Androcles, the lesson is that “Gratitude is the sign of a noble soul!” Read by Natasha. Duration 6 minutes 5 seconds Proofread by Claire Deakin. It happened in ancient times that a slave named Androcles escaped from his master and fled into the forest, and he wandered there for a long time until he was weary and well nigh spent with hunger and despair. Just then he heard a lion near him moaning and groaning and at times roaring terribly. Tired as he was, Androcles rose up and rushed away from the lion; but as he made his way through the bushes he stumbled over the root of a tree and fell down twisting his ankle. When he tried to get up, there he saw the lion coming towards him, ...
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