The Hares and the Frogs

The hares, having assembled one day, were bewailing among themselves how precarious and fearful their lives were: were they not indeed the prey of men, dogs, eagles, and many other animals? Better, then, to perish once and for all than to live in terror. Having taken this resolve, they rushed all together towards the pond, to throw themselves in and drown. But the frogs, squatting around the pond, no sooner heard the noise of their running than they leapt into the water. Then one of the hares, who seemed sharper than the rest, said, "Stop, comrades; do yourselves no harm; for, as you have just seen, there are creatures even more fearful than we are."