The Travellers and the Axe
Two men find an axe, and then find some trouble, but they aren’t keen on sharing either of them.
Two men find an axe, and then find some trouble, but they aren’t keen on sharing either of them.
A well-known politician once told entrepreneurs to stand back, look at their handiwork and say not ‘I built that!’ but ‘We built that!’, since no one does anything without the help of wider society. On the surface, this little Aesop’s Fable appears to back him up: the reader must be left to judge how deep the similarity goes.
As two Men were travelling through a wood, one of them took up an axe which he saw lying upon the ground. “Look here,” said he to his companion, “I have found an axe.”
“Don’t say ‘I have found it’ says the other, “but ‘We have found it.’ As we are companions, we ought to share it between us.” The first would not, however, consent.
They had not gone far, when they heard the owner of the axe calling after them in a great passion. “We are in for it!” said he who had the axe. Nay,” answered the other, “say, ‘I’m in for it!’ not ‘We’. You would not let me share the prize, and I am not going to share the danger.”
From ‘Aesop’s Fables’ (1878) revised and rewritten by Joseph Benjamin Rundell.
1. What is the author aiming to achieve in writing this?
2. Note any words, devices or turns of phrase that strike you. How do they help the author communicate his ideas more effectively?
3. What impression does this passage make on you? How might you put that impression into words?
Based on The English Critic (1939) by NL Clay, drawing on The New Criticism: A Lecture Delivered at Columbia University, March 9, 1910, by J. E. Spingarn, Professor of Comparative Literature in Columbia University, USA.
Suggest answers to this question. See if you can limit one answer to exactly seven words.
What was the ‘danger’ in which the two men soon found themselves?
The axe’s rightful owners were chasing them.
Express the ideas below in a single sentence, using different words as much as possible. Do not be satisfied with the first answer you think of; think of several, and choose the best.
You have my axe. I want it.
See if you can include one or more of these words in your answer.
IGrateful. IIMind. IIIPlease.