Krilof and His Fables/The Good Fox

A Sportsman killed a redcap one spring. Would that the evil he wrought had ended with her life! But, no—after hers three more lives had to be lost. The sportsman had made orphans of her three little ones, poor creatures! Only just out of the shell, feeble and ignorant, they suffered from cold and hunger, calling in vain upon their dam with plaintive cry.

"How can one help grieving at the sight of these little ones, and whose heart does not ache for them?" Thus were the neighbouring birds addressed by a Fox, who was sitting on a bit of stone opposite the nest of the orphans. "Don't leave these young creatures unassisted, my dear friends. If you will only bring the poor little darlings a tiny grain apiece, If each of you will only add to their dear little nest ever so small a straw, you will thereby save their lives. And what is more holy than a good deed?

"О cuckoo dear! just see how thou art moulting! Would it not be as well for thee to allow thyself to be plucked a little, and to give thy feathers to garnish their little bed? Really, thou art now losing them uselessly.

​"O lark! suppose that, instead of turning and tumbling about high up in the air, thou wert sometimes to look for food in the corn-field and the meadow, and to share it with the orphans.

"О turtle-dove! thy young ones have now grown up; they are able to procure their own food now, so it is possible for thee to fly from thy own nest, and take their mother's place over these little ones, leaving God to watch over thy own offspring.

"О swallow! suppose thou wert to catch flies, so as to make the fare of the orphans a little more dainty.

"And thou, dear nightingale, thou knowest how all things feel the charm of thy voice. Why shouldst thou not lull the little ones to rest by thy sweet song, while the zephyr rocks them in their nest?

"By such kindness, I am convinced, ye would make up to them for their sad loss. Only listen to me—we will prove that there are kind hearts in the forest, and that——"

As the Fox was saying these words, all three of the poor little birds, prevented by their hunger from keeping still, fell down on the ground just in front of him.

What did their kind friend do? Gobbled them up imme­diately, without finishing his sermon!

[This fable bears a good deal of resemblance to Florian's "Renard qui prêche," which was translated by Dmitrief under the title of "The Preaching Fox." Kenevich thinks that it relates to the subscriptions which were organized in ​1814—the year in which it appeared—for the benefit of the families which had been ruined during the French invasion. Some of the persons who got up these subscriptions, or who wrote letters about them to the papers, were supposed to be ac­tuated by not quite disinterested motives.]