THE TORTOISE AND THE EAGLE

THE TORTOISE AND THE EAGLE
A TORTOISE, lazily basking in the sun, complained to the
sea-birds of her hard fate, that no one would teach her to
fly.
An Eagle, hovering near, heard her lamentation and demanded
what reward she would give him if he would take
her aloft and float her in the air.
“I will give you,” she said, “all the riches of the Red Sea.”
“I will teach you to fly then,” said the Eagle; and taking
her up in his talons he carried her almost to the clouds
suddenly he let her go, and she fell on a lofty mountain,
dashing her shell to pieces.
The Tortoise exclaimed in the moment of death: “I have
deserved my present fate; for what had I to do with wings
and clouds, who can with difficulty move about on the
earth?’
If men had all they wished, they would be often ruined.