One That Didn't Make It

Here is a story, which I wrote sometime in 1996 when I first thought of writing the Life of Aesop. (www.lulu.com/content/344881) Till I had the book in its final form there were too many, more stories than I could have possibly used. In order to achieve a smooth flow of narration I discarded many. So here is one such piece of Aesopiana.

AN UNEQUAL CLASS WAR.

Agabus, a fellow slave who was older, could not understand Aesop. He had a number of hangers-on. One day he called the young slave aside and said: "We have been watching you from the time you joined us. Must you show so much enthusiasm to serve the master? Slaves cannot run with other slaves and hunt with masters as well."
"Is my loyalty in question here?" Aesop asked him.
"We slaves need to stand together. Any slave who wavers, is a chink in our armor. Understand? Master should not be able to see through our weak spots." Agabus explained.
"You have got it all wrong." Aesop said. "What covers our weak spots are our replacements. What with a great army of slaves ready to fill in our shoes, the master need only look at our works to know whom to blame."
* It is an unfortunate condition of the class struggle that money could lose in value; but labor cannot afford to.
benny

Will The Real Aesop Stand Up?

PREFACE

Mr. Wolf finally took subscription with a cable T.V Company and had a flatscreen installed in his lair. Watching TV became a routine and an addiction. Once surfing channels with his remote he was struck by a talk show. A kid was waxing eloquent and all through the show he ridiculed wolves.
He asked: ”What can one do with a wolf who has become a couch-potato?”
He himself supplied the answer: ”You still got to skin him.” Watching how the lamb was getting all the laughs he fumed: ”Talking head, your wisecracks do not worry me so much as not knowing what you have done with the rest of your body.”

No marks for guessing the source of this story.
Who has not heard of Aesop? Or read his fables? Very little is known of his life and the present book, I hope, shall to some extent satisfy that lacuna.
Who was Aesop?
The answer to this, ah my readers, is to be found in my book The Life of Aesop. Happy reading!
benny