THE FROGS ASKING FOR A KING

Time was when the Frogs were discontented because they had no one to rule over them: so they sent a deputation to Jupiter to ask him to give them a King. Jupiter, despising the folly of their request, cast a log into the pool where they lived, and said that that should be their King. The Frogs were terrified at first by the splash, and scuttled away into the deepest parts of the pool; but by and by, when they saw that the log remained motionless, one by one they ventured to the surface again, and before long, growing bolder, they began to feel such contempt for it that they even took to sitting upon it. Thinking that a King of that sort was an insult to their dignity, they sent to Jupiter a second time, and begged him to take away the sluggish King he had given them, and to give them another and a better one. Jupiter, annoyed at being pestered in this way, sent a Stork to rule over them, who no sooner arrived among them than he began to catch and eat the Frogs as fast as he could.

青蛙求国王

从前，青蛙们发现自己的族群没有统治者，很不满，于是他们便派了一个使团去见朱庇特，让他给他们一个国王。朱庇特很看不起他们的愚蠢要求，于是投了一根木头到青蛙生活的池塘，说那便是他们的国王。青蛙起初被木头溅起的水花吓了一跳，都躲进了池塘深处。但过了一会儿，他们看到木头一动不动，便一个个地回到了水面上。他们胆子越来越大，很快便看不起那木头，甚至坐到了木头上。他们觉得这样的国王是对他们尊严的侮辱，便又去见朱庇特，求他把这没有精神的国王弄走，给他们一个更好的。他们这样纠缠不休令朱庇特很恼怒，于是他便派了一只鹳去管理青蛙，鹳一到青蛙中间，便开始用它最快的速度捕食青蛙。