Fable Narration Example

A couple of years ago I shared our family's use of Aesop's fables. We've recently begun again with written narrations for our oldest son. I tracked down a copy of Aesop Without Morals, which includes the complete fables all without the moral attached. Today my thirteen year old wrote this narration with a twist - he thought of a sonnet to illustrate the moral:

Once, two friends were walking through a dark quiet forest. All of a sudden a huge bear attacked them.  One of them climbed up into a tree but the other, not being able to climb, fell down as if he were dead; for we all know that a bear will not harm a dead man. The bear looked at the man on the ground and sniffed him several times, and then it walked off. The other man came down out of the tree and asked what the bear had whispered in the first man’s ear and the man answered: “don’t trust a man who leaves you when you are in trouble.”

And the moral of the story is, in Shakespeare’s words:

He that is thy friend indeed,

He will help thee in thy need:

If thou sorrow, he will weep;

If thou wake, he cannot sleep;

Thus of every grief in heart

He with thee doth take a part.

These are certain signs to know

Faithful friend from flattering foe

Sonnet  XXI