Some of Æsop's Fables with Modern Instances

THE OX AND THE FROG

Alfred Caldecott translation

A very inflated frog displays herself to other frogs.

THE OX AND THE FROG.

An Ox, as he was drinking at the water's edge, crushed a young Frog underfoot. When the mother Frog came to the spot (for she happened to be away at the time) she asked his brothers where he was. "He is dead, mother," they said; "a few minutes ago a great big four-legged thing came up and crushed him dead with his hoof." Thereupon the Frog began to puff herself out and ask whether the animal was as big as that. "Stop, mother, don't put yourself about," they said; "you will burst in two long before you can make yourself the same size as that beast."

A woman shows her daughters her fine buttons. Her husband sits at his desk, which is covered with piles of papers. He looks exasperated. The caption says: “There my child, have I not as many buttons as Lady Golderoy now?”