Old Gold: A Book of Fables and Parables.

Abstract

A compact little book presenting ninety-five Aesopic fables and twenty-six of Jesus' parables cleanly and simply. The fable selection includes La Fontaine, Krylov's The Monkey and the Spectacles, and one fable new to me, The Two Peasants and the Cloud. (After heated argument between the two peasants over whether hail or rain is coming, the cloud simply blows away.) There are several nondescript designs along the way, the four full-page illustrations and the frontispiece having been done by an M. Board. Besides an introduction and T of C at the beginning, one finds a note by the editor and twenty-four quiz-questions at the end. There are no morals given; the editor gives a very sensible reason on 122: in the few instances where they are not obvious, the task of supplying them would make a pleasant exercise for the children for whom the book is intended.