THERE was once a farmer who had a horse which served him faithfully till it had grown old and could do its work no longer. So its master grudged it food, and said: “I have no further use for you, and yet I still feel kindly toward you. Therefore, if you will show yourself strong enough to bring home a lion, I will take care of you to the end of your days. But away with you now and out of my stable.”
Then the farmer drove the poor horse out, and it went sadly away with drooping head to the forest to get a little shelter from the wind and weather. There it met a fox, who said, “Why do you hang your head and look so downcast, and wander about in this solitary fashion?”
“Alas!” said the horse, “avarice and fidelity cannot dwell together. My master has forgotten all the service I have rendered him these many years, and because I can no longer plough he will not give me any fodder, and he has driven me out of my stable.”
“Did he give you no hope that you might return?” asked the fox.
“Very little,” replied the horse. “He told me that if I could manage to bring home a lion he would take care of me, but he knows well enough that such a thing is impossible.”
“Perhaps not,” said the fox. “I will help you. Just you lie down here and stretch out your legs as if you were dead.”
The horse did as he was bid, and the fox went to a lion whose den was not far off, and said: “Near by lies a dead horse. Come along with me, and you can have a capital meal.”
The lion went with the fox, and when they got to the horse, the fox said: “Hist! hearken to my advice. You can’t eat the creature in comfort here. I will tie it to you, and you can drag it away to your den, and enjoy it at your leisure.”
The plan pleased the lion, and he stood quite still, close to the horse, while the fox knotted the horse’s tail fast to him. He did not realize that the fox was cunningly tying his legs together and twisting and knotting the hairs of the tail till it was impossible for him to get free with all his strength. As soon as the work was done, the fox patted the horse on the shoulder, and said: “Pull, old Gray! Pull!”
At once the horse jumped up and started for home, dragging the lion behind it. In his rage the lion roared so that all the birds in the forest flew away in terror. But the horse let him roar, and never stopped until it reached its master’s door.
When the farmer saw what the horse had done he was delighted, and he repented of his former resolution to let the creature shift for itself. “You shall remain with me in future and live at your ease,” said he.
So the faithful horse had plenty to eat and comfortable shelter till it died.
