The Farmer and the Cranes

Some cranes settled down in a farmer's field that was newly sown. For some time the farmer frightened them away by brandishing an empty sling at them. But when the cranes found that he was only slinging to the winds, they no longer minded him, nor flew away. Upon this the farmer slung at them with stones and killed a great part of them. "Let us be off," said the rest, "to the land of the pygmies, for this man means to threaten us no longer, but is determined to get rid of us in earnest."