Hukumusume fairy tale collection > Foreign language (English) > Aesop’s Fables

The Ant and The Pigeon

(Aesop’s Fables)

Translation　ちいさな翻訳屋さん

おりがみをつくろう ( おりがみくらぶ より) あり 　　　はと

Japanese ・ English ・ Chinese

Japanese & English ・Japanese & Chinese

　An ant came down to a spring to drink some water. He mistakenly slipped into the spring, and was almost drowning.

　A pigeon that happened to observe the entire scene snapped a small tree branch off of a tree, and dropped it to the spring.

　The ant climbed up onto the branch, and managed to save his own life.

　Shortly after that, a bird hunter holding a lime-twig appeared, and tried to hunt the pigeon.

　The ant noticed what the hunter tried to do,

and thought that he should do something to prevent the hunter from hunting the pigeon.

　He bit the hunter on the foot with all his force.

His bite successfully made the hunter jump up with a sharp pain

　and dropped the lime-twig off to the ground, which also made it possible for the pigeon to fly away safely.



　This story tells us that we have to return a favor to those who have helped us.

The end

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