At a country fair there was a Buffoon who made all the
people laugh by imitating the cries of various animals. He
finished off by squeaking so like a pig that the spectators
thought that he had a porker concealed about him. But a
Countryman who stood by said: ‘Call that a pig s squeak!
Nothing like it. You give me till tomorrow and I will
show you what it’s like.’ The audience laughed, but next
day, sure enough, the Countryman appeared on the stage,
and putting his head down squealed so hideously that the
spectators hissed and threw stones at him to make him
stop. ‘You fools!’ he cried, ‘see what you have been
hissing,’ and held up a little pig whose ear he had been
pinching to make him utter the squeals.
Moral Lesson: Men often applaud an imitation and hiss the real thing.
―
Aesop
