At the time of his death, the longest manuscript still in William March's possession was a collection of fables, which he had completed for the first time in 1938. While Company K, The Tallons, The Bad Seed, and all the rest were in progress, March culled and rewrote, polished and revised these fables, always finding them “too good to destroy,” yet never finding them a good venture for a commercial publisher. Now, posthumously, the collection appears in this book, and readers can enjoy the fabulous world of William March.
This is not to imply that it is a “pretty world.” The fables themselves are an immediate delight, and everyone will find many favorites among the 99. But in the end, March's view of the world is a hard one, and the morals, however charmingly expressed are bitter enough to rival the themes of his novels.
At the time of his death, the longest manuscript still in William March's possession was a collection of fables, which he had completed for the first time in 1938. While Company K, The Tallons, The Bad Seed, and all the rest were in progress, March culled and rewrote, polished and revised these fables, always finding them “too good to destroy,” yet never finding them a good venture for a commercial publisher. Now, posthumously, the collection appears in this book, and readers can enjoy the fabulous world of William March.
This is not to imply that it is a “pretty world.” The fables themselves are an immediate delight, and everyone will find many favorites among the 99. But in the end, March's view of the world is a hard one, and the morals, however charmingly expressed are bitter enough to rival the themes of his novels.
99 Fables
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Overview
At the time of his death, the longest manuscript still in William March's possession was a collection of fables, which he had completed for the first time in 1938. While Company K, The Tallons, The Bad Seed, and all the rest were in progress, March culled and rewrote, polished and revised these fables, always finding them “too good to destroy,” yet never finding them a good venture for a commercial publisher. Now, posthumously, the collection appears in this book, and readers can enjoy the fabulous world of William March.
This is not to imply that it is a “pretty world.” The fables themselves are an immediate delight, and everyone will find many favorites among the 99. But in the end, March's view of the world is a hard one, and the morals, however charmingly expressed are bitter enough to rival the themes of his novels.
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9780817385859 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | University of Alabama Press |
| Publication date: | 01/30/2011 |
| Series: | Library of Alabama Classics |
| Sold by: | Barnes & Noble |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 226 |
| File size: | 2 MB |
About the Author
William March (September 18, 1893–May 15, 1954) was an American author and a highly decorated US Marine.
Read an Excerpt
99 Fables
By William March, William T. Going, Richard Brough
The University of Alabama Press
Copyright © 1988 Estate of William E. CampbellAll rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-0-8173-8585-9
CHAPTER 1
aesop and king croesus
KING CROESUS DECIDED TO put heavier taxes on his people who were even then sullen and discontented with the burdens they already bore, and he discussed the matter with his trusted messenger, the slave Aesop. Aesop could find no flaw in the king's reasoning, but if Croesus put the matter so bluntly to his subjects, he feared there would be barricades and bloodshed—a situation which could be avoided if Croesus would permit him, Aesop, to break the bad news in a fable.
This was agreed upon, and later Aesop spoke to the assembled people: "The lion decided to take even heavier tribute from his subjects, and as a result there was anger among them, some of them advocating an open rebellion, but the wise fox said, 'What can we gain by desperate measures? If we depose the lion, whose greedy ways we at least understand, we may find ourselves with a tyrant worse than he is; if we lose, we may have taken from us the little we now have. Isn't it wiser, therefore, to endure the evils we are familiar with than to invite strange evils of which we know nothing?'"
When Aesop finished, the people wept and went away, accepting their new burdens as something that could not be avoided, since the fable is, and always has been, the platitude's natural frame.
CHAPTER 2the insulted rabbit
A FARMER CAME TO THE edge of the forest and scolded the animals that were loitering there. He said, "No sooner is my back turned than you sneak under my fence and eat my cabbages!" In turn, he pointed at the wolf, the lion, the panther, and the tiger, but those animals laughed and said, "We're meat eaters. What you're looking for is a cabbage eater."
Then the farmer pointed at the rabbit and said, "It wouldn't surprise me if you knew about this, too."
The rabbit thumped the ground with his leg, advanced a step or two in the farmer's direction, and said, "Don't you dare insult me! Don't you dare call me a cabbage eater!"
A creature is insulted only when he agrees with his accuser.
CHAPTER 3the escaped elephant
AFTER SOME YEARS IN A circus, an elephant escaped and returned to her jungle. As she waded into the river and took her old place there, her friends asked what her life had been like in the years of her absence. "I suppose they starved you and made you do work beyond your strength," said an old bull.
The escaped elephant said, "No, it wasn't that way at all. I got better food with the circus than I ever got for myself at home; and the only work I did was walk in the parade, balance on a ball, and beat a drum in the tent. Everybody was nice to me, especially a man named Tommy who took care of me.... Poor little Tommy! He was so sweet and silly. He used to tie a pink bow on my tail, and once he painted my toenails yellow and reddened my trunk with chalk, threatening to walk me in the parade that way if I didn't behave better and eat my hay. Well, we laughed that time until our sides ached.
"It was because they made so much noise," said the escaped elephant. "They were forever playing brass bands, shouting at one another, and firing off cannons for no reason at all. Men are strong enough to stand that din and confusion, but I'm not." She turned in her tracks, splashing the warm, muddy water over her hide. "The truth of the matter is," she said, "that I'm just too thin-skinned."
CHAPTER 4the persimmon tree
A POSSUM WATCHED THE persimmons on the fox's tree turn from green to yellow to a tantalizing shade of gold. "How pleasant it would be if I could eat my fill of the ripe fruit," he said. He turned away, regretting that his moral code prevented his shaking the tree and taking what he wanted. "No," he said. "The fox is my friend and benefactor, and he trusts me. Oh, no!"
And so things went for several days, and then the first frost fell. That day the persimmons had reached their finest flavor, and as the possum stared up at the purple-and-silver fruit, his mouth watered; but he turned away finally and went back home. He found his wife outside in the sunlight, and as he came closer, she sniffed the frosty air and said, "What a morning this would be for eating persimmons! When I think how sweet they are at this moment—so fragrant, so juicy, so wrinkled at their edges by the frost—I could break down and cry my eyes out."
The possum stopped short and said, "That settles it. I'll take those persimmons if it's the last thing I ever do.... Why, what sort of a creature would I be if I deprived my sweet, faithful wife of persimmons—endangering her health and making her cry her dear eyes out."
We often do for the sake of others what we would like to do for ourselves.
CHAPTER 5the young poet and the worm
A YOUNG POET STOOD BY A riverbank and looked at the world about him. It was summer and the countryside was green; fruit hung in the orchards, cattle ate in the meadows of white clover, and the yellow grain waved and ripened in the fields. It was then the poet knew how greatly God had honored mankind and with what abundant and varied gifts, and overcome with emotion he cried out, "How beautiful, how wide, how splendid is the world—this rich, perfect world which God created for man's pleasure!"
An earthworm listened to the poet's words, appraising his plump, pink body. He said, "Perhaps the perfection of the world was made for the pleasure of man, as you think. I don't know about that, but there's one thing I do know from my own experience: the perfection of man was assuredly made for the pleasure of worms."
CHAPTER 6the bird and the waterfall
A BIRD OF PARADISE BUILT his nest near a waterfall. The animals of the forest came often to look at the fall and admire its beautiful colors, for when the sun shone on it, it was like a brilliantly tinted rainbow. The bird of paradise, when visitors arrived, would strut and preen himself, lifting his tail and spreading his wings so that his iridescence could be seen by all, but the visitors paid him little attention. When they noticed him at all, they only said, "Look at that poor drab bird. How pale he seems against the background of a rainbow."
If you would exhibit your talents to advantage, it's wise to find the appropriate background for them.
CHAPTER 7the criminal female
THE ANIMALS HELD COURT to try some female offenders. The first was a squirrel who had stolen the food supply of her sister. "It's true! It's all true!" said the squirrel; "but it was a cold, hard winter, and I was thin, and my lover likes fat squirrels. I stole my sister's food only that I might become plump and desirable, and thus win back the love of my sweetheart. It was love and love alone that made me do it."
The jury nodded in sympathy, and the judge released the squirrel who had made herself so fat and seductive.
The next was a leopardess, and hardly had she taken the stand before she said, "It's true I killed the dear husband that I loved so well, but I did it only for his own good: you see, he was leaving me for a younger leopardess, and I knew he couldn't be happy with her, having once known my love, so to spare him pain, I killed him."
The jury said not guilty, and the judge agreed.
The third offender, a lioness, was accused of selling her cubs to a hunter. She admitted her offense, as her sisters had done, and the judge said, "You sold your cubs because you loved them so greatly, didn't you, madam?"
"Well, no," said the lioness. "I sold my cubs because it was to my advantage to do that. You see, the hunter offered me such a large sum for them that I'd have been a fool not to have taken it."
When the judge could speak at all, he cried out: "You are a disgrace to your sex, and you deserve the death sentence I'm going to impose on you!"
Any crime is permitted a female if she remembers to do it in the name of love.
CHAPTER 8the sheep and the soldiers
A COMPANY OF HIGH-spirited soldiers on their way to the wars fell out to rest beside a country lane, and before them were sheep browsing on the side of a hill. The sheep moved with lowered eyes, following their leader wherever he led them and bumping their faces against the rumps of the sheep in front of them when he stopped suddenly or changed direction. Seeing the sheep, the soldiers laughed boisterously, capered about, and slapped one another on the back.
The sheep looked up at the sound of the merriment and stared back at the soldiers; then their leader said, "Why do you laugh at us? We, at least, know what we are and what our end will be."
At once the soldiers rushed to the fence and hurled stones at the sheep, since a comedian finds everything amusing except a joke on himself.
CHAPTER 9the stableboy
A STABLEBOY IN THE provinces had one ambition, and that was to go to court and learn to be a gentleman: for this reason he saved his wages, hoping his ambition would be realized in time. One of the grooms had been in the capital when he was younger, and had stories to tell of the fine gentlemen he had seen there, describing their dress, their refinements, and their delicate manners.
And so things went, while the stableboy's savings grew with the passing months, and then he got a letter from his brother who lived nearby. The brother explained that he'd been sick, and since he had not been able to work, his family was in want. He begged the stableboy to send them money to help them along.
"Tell him no," said the old groom. "Explain that you need the money for yourself."
"That would be selfish, and it would hurt his feelings, too. I wouldn't want to do anything that mean."
"Then say you haven't got any money. He won't know the difference."
"That would be a lie," said the stableboy after a pause. "I couldn't do a thing like that."
That day he sent his brother all the money he had saved and began all over again; but hardly a month had passed before news came of the brother's death. He had left a widow and five small children, and nothing else; and his widow implored her brother-in-law to come take over the farm and work it, for without a man on the place to look out for them, she feared they'd starve before the winter was over. This was the last thing the stableboy had counted on, and he went to the barn to think matters out.
The old groom came up, and being told of the situation, he said, "If you do it, you'll have a lifetime job on your hands raising those children. You'll never get to court."
"I know that," said the stableboy sadly, "but what else can I possibly do? I'll just have to resign myself to the fact that I'll never be a gentleman."
CHAPTER 10the world and its redeemers
FOR YEARS THE MOUNTAIN goats had lived in comfort, each generation finding itself better off than its predecessor. In time they might have achieved contentment, but when things seemed most stable with them, a redeemer appeared, saying it was the destiny of mountain goats to convert and enlighten the world. The goats, aroused by the zeal of the prophet, started a war against their neighbors, but to their amazement these neighbors neither knew they were lost nor desired to be saved, and resisted with all their strength, and the final result, after years of destruction, was that both sides were almost annihilated.
In the end, the mountain goats were driven back to their own country, but things had gone to ruin during their absence. The paths they had made were forgotten, their dwellings had fallen down, and the fields where they had grazed were covered with nettles; in fact, the goats who had managed to survive found themselves once more in the darkness, the poverty, and the despair from which their ancestors had so patiently emerged.
The world could have been saved long ago if it had not been for its redeemers.
CHAPTER 11the donkey and the calf
A BULL WHO FOUND IT necessary to make a long journey was concerned about his son, a calf too young to undertake the trip on foot. As a result, he offered to pay the donkey if he would carry the calf on his back, and the donkey, seeing how light the calf was, agreed, well pleased with the bargain he had made.
For some days the donkey trotted along, hardly aware of the load he was carrying, but as the weeks went by, and the calf grew bigger and bigger, he found himself straining under a load so heavy that it was intolerable. At last he told his employer that he could go no farther, begging to be released from his contract, but the bull refused. That day the donkey staggered forward as best he could, but toward nightfall his legs collapsed and he fell to the earth, crushed by the weight of the lusty, full-grown bull he was bearing.
Carry a calf, and you'll wind up with a bull on your back.
CHAPTER 12white and yellow corn
A FARMER FED HIS CHICKENS on white corn which he grew in his own fields. One year he decided to plant yellow corn instead of white corn, but when the yellow corn was harvested, his chickens refused to eat it. The situation soon became serious, and it was plain the chickens would starve if something were not done. It was then the farmer hit on a scheme, and he told his wife and children to go to the barnyard and follow the instructions he had previously given them.
This they did, and when the farmer began scattering the yellow corn, his family got down on their hands and knees and gobbled it up, cackling, flapping their arms, pecking and shoving one another out of the way. Instantly the fowls came running up, stretching their necks forward and snapping up the yellow corn as fast as they could.
When the hens had eaten all they could hold, the farmer said, "Well, we've learned one thing today: if you want to convince a fool, you must do so in the language he understands."
(Continues...)
Excerpted from 99 Fables by William March, William T. Going, Richard Brough. Copyright © 1988 Estate of William E. Campbell. Excerpted by permission of The University of Alabama Press.
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