LESSON 34 The fox and the stork

第三十四课 狐狸和鹳

A fox asked a stork to dinner, with the naughty purpose of playing a trick on his guest.

狐狸请鹳共进晚餐，因为他想戏弄他的客人。

The stork came at the hour fixed, with a good appetite for her meal. But little pleased was she on finding that it consisted of mince, served up in a dish so shallow that she could scarcely, with her long slender bill, pick up enough to satisfy a sparrow! The fox lapped up the food readily enough, only stopping a moment to say, "I hope, madam, that you like your feast? Don't you think that my mince is first-rate?"

鹳按时赴约，准备好吃大餐。但是她很快就不高兴了，因为她发现盘子里只有碎肉，她的长喙根本吃不到，而且连只麻雀都喂不饱！狐狸贪婪地吃着盘里的肉，只停下来说了一句，“希望你喜欢这段大餐，难道不觉得我做的碎肉是一流的吗？”

The stork made no reply, but retired, hungry and much displeased, from the almost untasted meal.

鹳没答话，但是她又累又饿，很不高兴。这一切都是因为这顿饭。

A few days afterwards the stork returned the compliment by asking the fox to dinner.

几天后，鹳也请狐狸去吃晚餐。

Reynard hastened to the place of meeting, where the stork had made ready her meal. Great was the disgust of the fox to behold the food served up in a long-necked jar, which let in the stork's slender bill, but into which he could not thrust even his pointed nose!

狐狸很快到了约定的地方，鹳已经准备好了食物。食物呈在一个长颈瓶里，只有鹳的尖尖的喙能伸进去，狐狸却连自己尖尖的鼻子都塞不进去。

"I hope, sir, that you like your feast?" said the stork, who was not generous enough to return good for evil, and who wished to give Reynard a lesson. And as the hungry fox looked sadly up into her face, she added, "Those who cannot take a joke in good part should never make one. Never do to others, what you would not like them to do to yourself."

“我希望你喜欢这顿饭。”，鹳说道。鹳做不到以德报怨，她想给狐狸一个教训。狐狸很哀怨地抬头看了她一眼，她接着说道：“不能开善意得玩笑就不要开。己所不欲，勿施于人。”