| Aesop revisited (7)
THE CORK AND THE CROW These two, both being birds of a feather (at least in olden times) and the greatest of friends, had great difficulty (no matter how disparate the direction and manner of each), in finding reasons to oppose or complain about the natural inclinations of the other. When something that one did tended to irritate the other, (such as acting like a total jackass rather than a proper jackdaw or crowing at gorgeous, prize trophy-hens who were such dumb-clucks that they didn't know the difference between a cackle and a grackle), the other would just shrug his shoulders and say, "Well, that's just how it is with this bird," and pretend the peccadillo never really happened. Hence they could always count on one another for sympathy and understanding (and sometimes even encouragement) of their sometimes-wayward ways but Lo and Behold, one-day things totally changed in such a way that the poor crow was left completely in the lurch and life was never the same again. Here's what happened: The Cock had never been allowed out of his pen until one day the farmer took pity on him and allowed him to scratch around in the farmyard to his heart's content and poof!!!! The cock had suddenly become a cork! Some said that it was merely a typographical error; others said that it was the heat and shock of the virgin scratching that did it while still others went around chanting the old saw, "Scratch a cock and find a cork!" and confided to anyone who would listen that they knew all along that he had always been a cork in cock's clothing. Moral: Don't count on your chickens before they've scratched.
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