Creighton University

The hunter here is a lion.  Before the chase, the stag is accompanied by smiling animals.  The stag heads for the forest and is almost out of the lion's sight when he is caught not noticing where he is going.  "What an unhappy fool I was, to take my friends for my enemies, and my enemies for my friends!  I trusted my head, that has betrayed me, and I found fault with my legs, that would otherwise have brought me off."  The last image has the lion in mid-leap ready to pounce on the crying stag.  In GGE,  the farmer's response upon finding a large, heavy, bright yellow egg is "Something's wrong with this egg."  He is ready to throw it away.  Over time, the farmer becomes greedier and lazy.  His farm lies neglected.  The moral as the farmer weeps and holds his bloody knife is "Greed destroys one's wit and wisdom."

Polly lives on a farm with her mother.  Polly loves to daydream.  She has a specific dress in mind as she makes her way to market, and she giggles as she imagines the reaction of the preening Susan when she sees Polly in that dress.  She dreams on the boys paying her a lot of attention.  She tosses her head scornfully, showing how she will not pay attention to Susan.  Contrary to the picture, the text has the milk pouring down over Polly's head.  Though her mother is angry, they soon raise their standard of living through Polly's increased attentiveness.  There are grammatical issues on 3.  The inattentive fox falls into a ditch with loose gravel and no footholds.  He has to wait some time before a goat happens to appear.  He tells the goat that a drought is coming.  The fox's use of the goat to vault out is immediate and without discussion.  "The fox mischiefly blamed the goat for not thinking on how to get out before jumping in."  Moral: "Never pay heed to advice given by a man who is in difficulties."

The grasshopper here is fully clothed, with hat, jacket, and shoes.  He is merry, and he loves to show off.  The ant keeps working "to help my family store food for winter."  "How silly!" is the grasshopper's reaction; he laughs to see the ants work while he enjoys himself.  When winter comes, he sees through a window in their home how the ants are warm and comfortable, with plenty of food.  "The grasshopper was self-conscious for the lack of precautions for winter." When he asks for help, the ant at first criticizes him, "but finally as a good neighbor and for the love of music, the ant helped the grasshopper with food and shelter on the promise of hard work as soon as the weather improved."  A reader might ask what this part of the moral means: "Nothing is so good as being good."  The honest woodcutter gets help from a beautiful fairy.  She asks him a second time to identify his axe from among the three she eventually retrieves from the river.  The woodcutter becomes prosperous, and a neighbor becomes jealous.  The greedy neighbor says "yes" about the golden axe, and the fairy becomes angry with him for his "jealousy, dishonesty, and greed."  She vanishes with the golden axe.  This story curiously adds a detail that fellow woodcutters witness the man's dishonest act, and he feels ashamed.

The father's three sons finally clasp hands in the last image here.  "If you quarrel, then you can be broken easily; but if you stick together, no one can break you!"  The tortoise in TH patiently listens to the tall stories of his friend the hare "because he knew the hare was a good-hearted fellow."  One of this story's best images highlights the facial reactions of the animals to the hare's boasting on 10.  The tortoise thinks it is time to "take my friend down a little."  For the race, a large parakeet waves a checkered flag to start the race.  At the end "The hare ran fastest he ever had, but it was too late."   The image of the sleeping hare on 15 is also well done.

In this version of DS, the butcher throws the hungry dog a piece of meat.  To get to his favorite place outside the village where he would not be disturbed, the dog needs to cross a bridge that is narrow, old, and worn.  As he crosses, he thinks that he sees "a real dog carrying a bone much bigger than his own."  A careful reader will wonder here because the meat has suddenly become a bone.  The dog growls at his reflection, and it growls back.  "He barked at the shadow, and lost the meat."  The last image portrays the dog's frustration well!  The fox in FG is both hungry and thirsty after searching for food.  He rests in the shadow of some vines and then notices grapes ready for harvest.  After jumping to get them, he takes a running start, but he still misses.  The text speaks of the grapes as purple, and the artist presents them as green.  "They must be sour."  Moral: "We despise what we can't get!"

The male fox here begins by telling the female crow how young and lovely she looks.  He has traveled widely but has never seen as beautiful a crow.  "I am sure your voice matches your looks!"  "The crow was less affected by the loss of cheese than being trapped by flattery.  'What a fool I am!"  The second story is not carefully presented.  In the text, a cock is "high up in the coop," while the illustration has him standing on top of the coop.  While the fable's title speaks of one dog, the operative concept in the story has to do with the fictional dogs that the cock sees in the distance.  The fox's ruse is stated in poor fashion: "None of the animals will attack another animals any more!"  At the moment of the cock's counter-ruse, he "was still higher up and screening at something far off."  Screening?