Illustration by Walter Crane, from The Baby’s Own Aesop, 1887

I decided to share another of Aesop’s fables today. I always equate Aesop with talking animals, but this time around we’ve got one about the gods interacting with humans.

A Waggoner was once driving a heavy load along a very muddy  way. At last he came to a part of the road where the wheels sank  half-way into the mire, and the more the horses pulled, the deeper the wheels sank. So the Waggoner threw down his whip, and knelt  down and prayed to Hercules the Strong. “O Hercules, help me in this my hour of distress.” But Hercules appeared to him, and said: “Tut, man, don’t sprawl there. Get up and put your shoulder to the wheel.”

The moral, of course, is that the gods help those who help themselves.

On a side note, it’s funny how much different illustrations for “baby” books look today. They are so much simpler and cleaner. The colors tend to be brighter, too, I think.

Thursday’s Tales is a weekly event here at Carol’s Notebook. Fairy tales, folktales, tall tales, even re-tellings, I love them all. Feel free to join in.

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