The Kid on the Housetop

Aesop

A kid climbed up on to the roof
 

A Kid climbed up on to the roof of an outhouse, attracted by the grass and other things that grew in the thatch; and as he stood there browsing away, he caught sight of a Wolf passing below, and jeered at him because he couldn’t reach him.

The Wolf only looked up and said, “I hear you, my young friend; but it is not you who mock me, but the roof on which you are standing.”

 
The wolf looked up

From Aesop’s Fables: a new translation by V.S. Vernon Jones, with an introduction by G.K. Chesterton and illustrations by Arthur Rackham. 1912 edition. This work is in the public domain.