牧羊人和野山羊 The Goatherd and the Wild Goats

牧羊人和野山羊 The Goatherd and the Wild Goats

 

A goatherd, driving his flock from their pasture at eventide, found some Wild Goats mingled among them, and shut them up together with his own for the night.  The next day it snowed very hard, so that he could not take the herd to their usual feeding places, but was obliged to keep them in the fold.  He gave his own goats just sufficient food to keep them alive, but fed the strangers more abundantly in the hope of enticing them to stay with him and of making them his own.  When the thaw set in, he led them all out to feed, and the Wild Goats scampered away as fast as they could to the mountains.  The Goatherd scolded them for their ingratitude in leaving him, when during the storm he had taken more care of them than of his own herd.  One of them, turning about, said to him:  "That is the very reason why we are so cautious; for if you yesterday treated us better than the Goats you have had so long, it is plain also that if others came after us, you would in the same manner prefer them to ourselves."
  ——Old friends cannot with impunity be sacrificed for new ones. 

黄昏时分，牧羊人赶着他的羊群放牧归来时，发现有几只野山羊也夹杂在其中。他把它们和自己的羊关在一起，过了一夜。

第二天，下起了大雪，牧羊人不能带着羊群去它们以往吃草的地方了，只得让它们呆在羊栏里。他给自己的样的食物刚好能填饱它们的肚子，而喂那几只野山羊的食物要丰盛得多，想以此来引诱它们留下来，归他自己所有。

冰雪刚一融化，那几只野山羊便拼命地向上里跑去。牧羊人责怪它们弃他而去是忘恩负义，说暴风雪期间他对它们的照顾比对自己的羊还要多。

一只野山羊听到后，转过头来对他说：“这正是我们小心提防你的原因。既然你对我们比对跟了你那么长时间的羊都好，那么，很显然，如果我们之后又有羊加入的话，你又会同样地去喜欢它们而忽略我们的。”

——不能让老朋友无辜地为新朋友做出牺牲。