The Crow and the Pitcher

Yesterday, March 26th, was the anniversary of William Caxton's 

first printing of Aesop's Fables in English.

According to the BBC online site, 

Caxton was the first to own a printing press in 15th century England.

He helped revolutionize the dissemination of the printed word

by printing hundreds of titles and translations during his lifetime.

His first printed book was his own translation of

The Recuyell of the Histories of Troye.

image from sv.wikipedia.org

So in honor of William Caxton's publication of Aesop's Fables,

here's one of my favorite fables, "The Crow and the Pitcher"

which appears on the website AesopsFables.com.

A Crow, half-dead with thirst, 

came upon a Pitcher which had once  been full of water; 

but when the Crow put its beak into the mouth of the pitcher,

he discovered there was very little left in it,

 and that he could not reach far enough down to get at the water.

He tried, and he tried, but at last had to give up in despair.

Photo courtesy of morguefile.com

Then a thought came to him. 

He took a pebble and dropped it into the Pitcher.  

Then he took another pebble and dropped it into the pitcher

and again and again he repeatedly dropped pebbles in to the pitcher.

  At last, at last, he saw the water mount up near him,

and after casting in a few more pebbles

he was able to quench his thirst and save his life.

And the moral of the story is:

Little by little does the trick.

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