A crow had snatched a goodly piece of cheese out of a window and flew with it into a high tree, intent on enjoying her prize. A fox spied the dainty morsel and thus planned his approach.
"Oh, crow," said he, "how beautiful are thy wings! How bright thine eye! How graceful thy neck! Thy breast is the breast of an eagle! Thy claws—I beg pardon—thy talons are a match for all the beasts of the field. Oh, that such a bird should be dumb and want only a voice."
The crow, pleased with the flattery and chuckling to think how she would surprise the fox with her caw, opened her mouth. Down dropped the cheese! Snapping it up, the fox observed, as he walked away, that whatever he had remarked of her beauty, he had said nothing yet of her brains.
Men seldom flatter without some private end in view, and they who listen to such music may expect to have to pay the piper.