The Crab and His Mother
Aesop
An Old Crab said to her son, “Why do you walk sideways like that, my son? You ought to walk straight.”
The Young Crab replied, “Show me how, dear mother, and I’ll follow your example.”
The Old Crab tried, but tried in vain, and then saw how foolish she had been to find fault with her child.
Example is better than precept.
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.
