An Owl¹ who was sitting in a hollow tree, dozing² away a summer's afternoon, was very much disturbed by a rogue³ of a Grasshopper⁴ singing in the grass beneath. So far from keeping quiet, or moving away at the request of the Owl, the Grasshopper sang all the more, and called her an old blinker, that only came out at night when all honest people had gone to bed. The Owl waited in silence for a time, and then artfully addressed the Grasshopper as follows: "Well, my dear, if one cannot be allowed to sleep, it is something to be kept awake by such a pleasant voice. And now I think of it, I have a bottle of delicious nectar. If you will come up, you shall have a drop." The silly Grasshopper, came hopping⁵ up to the Owl, who at once caught and killed him, and finished her nap in comfort.

Flattery is not a proof of admiration⁶.