'The Mole and Her Mother'

'The Mole and Her Mother', an illustration by John Vernon Lord 

in Aesop's Fables; 1989, page 118.

The Text:

The Mole and Her Mother

The young Mole snuffed up her nose, and told her Dam she smelt an odd kind of smell. Bye and bye, O strange! says she, what a noise there is in my ears as if ten thousand hammers were going. A little after, she was at it again: look, look, what is that I see yonder? it is just like the flame of a fiery furnace. The Dam replied, pray child hold your idle tongue; and if you would have us allow you any sense at all, do not affect to shew more than nature has given you.

Moral: The imperfections of boasters would not be half so much taken notice of if their own vanity did not draw attention to them.

Text: Thomas Bewick (p27, 1818).

Selected Parallels: L’Estrange 1/136. Chambry 326. Perry 214. TMI J958.

note:

A strange telling of the fable.