The Goatherd And The Wild Goats
A Goatherd, driving his flock from their pasture at eventide, found
some Wild Goats mingled among them, and shut them up together with
his own for the night. The next day it snowed very hard, so that he
could not take the herd to their usual feeding places, but was obliged
to keep them in the fold. He gave his own goats just sufficient food
to keep them alive, but fed the strangers more abundantly in the hope
of enticing them to stay with him and of making them his own. When
the thaw set in, he led them all out to feed, and the Wild Goats scampered
away as fast as they could to the mountains. The Goatherd scolded
them for their ingratitude in leaving him, when during the storm he
had taken more care of them than of his own herd. One of them, turning
about, said to him: "That is the very reason why we are so cautious;
for if you yesterday treated us better than the Goats you have had
so long, it is plain also that if others came after us, you would
in the same manner prefer them to ourselves."
Old friends cannot with impunity be sacrificed for new ones.
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