A Fox wanted to be like a Wolf. He donned a Wolf’s skin and was taught by a Wolf. As food walked by a Cock crowed and the Fox reverted to be himself.
True nature will out.
JBR Collection
Said the Fox to the Wolf, one day, “My friend, you have no idea how badly I often fare. A horribly tough old Cock, or a lean and shrivelled Hen, is a kind of food of which it is quite possible in time to get tired. Now, it seems to me that you live a good deal better than we do, and don’t run into so much danger either. I have to go prowling about the houses: you get your prey in the fields afar. Teach me your business. Let me be the first of my race to have a fat Sheep whenever he has a fancy that way. Teach me, there’s a good fellow, and you shall find yourself no loser in the end.” “I will,” said the Wolf; “and, by-the-by, I have just lost a brother. You will find his body over yonder. Slip into his skin, and come to me again.” The Fox did as he was told, and the Wolf gave him many a lesson in growling, biting, fighting, and deportment, which the Fox executed first badly, then fairly, and in the end quite as well as his master. Just then a flock of Sheep came in sight, and into the midst of them rushed the new-made Wolf, with such fury and noise that Shepherd Boy, Dog, and Sheep flew off in terror to gain their home, leaving only one poor sheep behind, that had been seized by the throat. Just at that instant, a Cock in the nearest farm crowed loud and shrill. There was no resisting the familiar sound. Out of the Wolf’s skin slipped the Fox, and made towards the Cock as fast as he could, forgetting in a moment, his lessons, the Sheep, the Professor, and everything else, about which he had just been making all the fuss in the world.