The Eagle, the Cat, and the Wild Sow

By Aesop

AN EAGLE had made her nest at the top of a lofty oak. A Cat, having found a convenient hole, lived with her kittens in the middle of the trunk; and a Wild Sow with her young had taken shelter in a hollow at its foot. The Cat resolved to destroy by her arts this chance-made colony.

She climbed to the nest of the Eagle and said: Destruction is preparing for you, and for me too. The Wild Sow, whom you may see daily digging up the earth, wishes to uproot the oak, that she may, on its fall, seize our families as food. Then she crept down to the cave of the Sow, and said: Your children are in great danger; for as soon as you shall go out with your litter to find food, the Eagle is prepared to pounce upon one of your little pigs.

When night came, she went forth with silent foot and obtained food for herself and her kittens; but, feigning to be afraid, she kept a lookout all through the day. Meanwhile, the Eagle, full of fear of the Sow, sat still on the branches, and the Sow, terrified by the Eagle, did not dare to go out from her cave. And thus they each, with their families, perished from hunger.

Moral:
Those who stir up enmities are not to be trusted.