Creighton University

In this version of SW, illustrated with page-filling duochrome illustrations, the sun sees beforehand how he can win.  The bet is formulated in the poorer version.  In anger at losing the bet, the wind blows so hard that he blows himself away!  Good designs of the man with his jacket.

This story may seem at first to be a version of OR, but it is rather the story of the bush learning not to envy the large tree.  As the bush laments its little size, men come along and chop down the big tree.  As the big tree says, "Big trees get cut down.  Men want their wood."  The bush ends up happy to be a bush.  Large illustrations of several colors illustrate the story.

In this version of FC with strong duochrome illustrations in yellow and black, the fox needs to go through several phases of flattering the crow before he gets the cheese from the female crow.  "Will you sing?"  "They say you can sing very well."  "They say that you can sing better than any other bird."  "Every one likes to hear you sing, Crow."  The final image of the fox has him holding the cheese in his hand as he stands up like a human being.  He eats the cheese on the spot.

This version of GA with strong duochrome illustrations in yellow and black tells the tale at its simplest.  The grasshopper dies in the end.  The story depicts the grasshopper as very happy in summer; sometimes versions seeing the grasshopper as lazy do not describe or picture him as happy.  The ant should just "sit here and sing like me," the grasshopper suggests.  "Winter is too far away to think about."  Again later, "Work, work, work.  That's all you ever do.  Why don't you rest a bit and sing with me?"  "There's lots of time to gather food before winter comes."  The ant uses a coaster-wagon to portage his food to the ant-hill.

This version of LM with strong, simple yellow and black illustrations tells the tale in a quite different form.  The lion lies down to sleep on the mouse's nest.  The mouse decides to tickle the lion to wake him up and get him off of his nest.  He runs up and down the lion's leg repeatedly.  The lion changes his mind about killing the mouse when the latter explains the reason for waking him up.  The lion immediately goes for a walk and is thinking about the mouse's silly promise to help when he wanders into a net.  He cries for help, and the mouse keeps biting the net until there is a hole.  The lion apologizes for saying that the mouse was silly.

This version of the story has, as the title indicates, a lazy lion rather than an old lion.  The lion asks a dog to be a messenger who will tell the animals to visit him.  The fox objects immediately, and when other animals say that a sick lion cannot catch them, he answers, "I don't know about that."  In this version, the fox goes along with the other animals but stays outside the lion's den.  Does the story not lose something of its appeal when the fox sees not just footprints but victims who no longer come out of the den?  When the lion gets up to greet the animals, the dog asks how he can get up so fast if he is sick.  "Just seeing you has made me better."  When they want to go, he asks them to stay for dinner: "For MY dinner!"  After eating them all, he invites the fox to come in.  "Where are the animals?"  "Why don't you come in and see them?"  The fox asks the lion to send out just one of the other animals.  The lion answers after a time that none of the animals wants to come out.  "I don't think any of them CAN come out" answers the fox.  Simple two-color illustrations.

This version of TH opens with a great description of the jack rabbit's behavior: "All he ever did was brag, brag, brag."  As he keeps up his offensive behavior, the turtle says "I wish you would go away."  "I don't want to go away.  I want to race."  "Very well, then," said the turtle.  "I will race you."  The race here is unusual -- and perhaps less well thought through -- in that it goes out and comes back. The turning-back point is the big tree, and that is where the jack rabbit decides to have a little rest.  The best of the simple black and orange illustrations may be that of the jack rabbit sleeping against the base of the tree.  The other animals at the finish line ask the jack rabbit what he says now.  "The jack rabbit didn't say a thing. And from that day on the jack rabbit never bragged again."