Creighton University

This pamphlet is the fifth of eight in the collection.  It uses Caxton's text.  The story starts with the crow lamenting his lack of beauty and then his lack of singing ability.  Some workers throw a piece of cheese for the crow, who picks it up.  It is not clear that the crow ever comes to singing.  When he opens his beak, the cheese is gone.  As in other versions in this collection, the crow himself learns and announces the moral’s conclusion: “I know very well I am not beautiful and I cannot sing.  It is best not to listen to those who say things that are untrue in order to flatter us.”  The simple illustrations alternate between green and gold duotone and black-and-white.

This pamphlet is the fourth of eight in the collection.  It uses Caxton's text.  The story starts with the stork who has no friends and is shy.  The fox decides to play a trick and invites the stork.  He offers him a large piece of meat on a plate, with which of course the stork can do nothing.  I become a little confused when the stork in answer offers some “Soup” in a long narrow glass.  The confusion comes when the text goes on to speak of “meat” and to show a piece of meat in the glass.  Which is it?  The text seems to get the fox to conclude that we must not do to others what we do not like ourselves.  I am less sure that the fox came to that conclusion!  The simple illustrations alternate between brown and green duotone and black-and-white.

This pamphlet is the third of eight in the collection.  It uses Caxton's text.  The story starts with the town mouse who lives in a pantry and decides that he needs a holiday.  He happens to meet a country mouse and is invited to his home.  They eat wheat for every meal, as is pleasantly depicted on 8-9, but the picture already has the town mouse thinking back to his bread and cake.  A human intrudes as soon as they arrive at the town pantry.  The country mouse does not know what to do or where to go.  He manages by hiding behind the door.  “I cannot enjoy this good food when I am afraid.”  The simple illustrations alternate between beige-and-blue duotone and black-and-white.

This pamphlet is the sixth of eight in the collection.  It uses Caxton's text.  The story first introduces us to the noble horse and the lowly ass.  They meet on a road, and the horse commands the loaded ass to make room.  A few years later, the horse falls ill, grows thin, and is less admired.  His master prefers and promotes another horse.  Soon the old horse is reduced to carrying dung to the fields.  He is ashamed to be doing such work.  The same ass from the past meets him in the field, where the ass now lives because he is too old to carry sacks to market.  The ass stops in wonder and asks what has happened.  The horse is too ashamed to answer.  The horse actually wants to befriend the ass, who rejects him.  “Back then, you were no friend to me.”  The author reminds us that we should be kind to the poor because we may one day be poor ourselves.  The simple illustrations alternate between brown and gray duotone and black-and-white.  The best image may be that of the horse commanding the laden ass to step aside (6).

This sixteen-page pamphlet is a better copy of a pamphlet already in the collection.  As I wrote then, it uses Caxton's text.  The story involves some unusual incidents, some of which I did not relate in looking at the original pamphlet.  For example, the dog tries to eat the hay but cannot chew it and does not like the taste, and the dog likes to help bring the cows home for milking and does just that.  Some details seem only to draw out the story, like the dog watching the farmer milk the cows and clean the barn.  The dog then confronts a dog threatening to eat his food and he later strangely blocks the cows at the barn door to stop them from eating the hay.  The motivation here is unclear to me.  Is not the usual story that the dog will not leave his bed of hay because he is lazy and has been resting there for some time?  In this version, the dog yields to the farmer but then jumps into the manger and so stops a cow from continuing to eat the hay.  I asked after finding two pamphlets whether there might be still others in a series with them.  Now I have my answer as I include this copy and six others.  The simple illustrations alternate between beige-and-blue duotone and black-and-white.

This pamphlet is the seventh of eight in the collection.  It uses Caxton's text.  The story first presents the two characters, especially in terms of their hunting practices.  When the fox first asks the cat if he can do clever tricks, the cat answers that he can “leap a little and catch rats.”  As the two talk, they see a hunter with his dogs coming.  “Should we run away?” asks the cat.  The fox calls that cowardly.  The two wait while the dogs follow the fox’s scent across the field.  In a rather illogical turn in the story, the fox soon suggests fleeing and the cat responds that, with so many tricks, the fox must be safe to stay.  The fox runs.  The cat leaps into a tree.  The cat calls to the fox to show one of his tricks, but the dogs have already caught and killed him.  The cat reflects that some animals, like the fox, “are too clever and cunning.”  The narrator concludes “It is better to know one trick that is useful than a thousand clever ones.”  The simple illustrations alternate between brown and gray duotone and black-and-white.  The best image may show the cat looking down on the hunt from her safe tree perch (12).

This pamphlet is the eighth of eight in the collection.  It uses Caxton's text.  The story presents one tree and one reed.  This tree questions why the reed bends instead of keeping still as the tree does.  The reed responds that it must bow or will break, since it does not have the tree’s strength.  The tree boasts that it can never be bent.  The wind can do it no harm.  After a storm brings the tree down, the reed reflects that the tree should have bowed before the wind as the reed did.  The simple illustrations alternate between gold and green duotone and black-and-white.  The most intriguing image has the reed standing tall while the tree is completely horizontal behind it (12).