> Sparing their
> lives in the story therefore doesn't eliminate any hard learned
> lessons, but simply adds an additional lesson about the pro's and
> con's of helping your fellow man (or fellow pig, in this case).
Anybody ever see a wonderful book for kids called "Fables You Shouldn't Pay
Any Attention To?"
They all have morals like "The grass *is* greener on the other side of the
fence," and "Sometimes it pays to lie."
But my favorite is the one about the two squirrels, one who shares all of
her nuts with the other squirrels all winter, and the other who hordes and
refuses to share.
The over-sharing squirrel runs out of nuts in the winter, and asks the
hoarding squirrel for some nuts. The hoarding squirrel says "Drop dead."
The next line is "And she did!" There is a picture of the cute little
squirrel, dead.
The last line is "It pays to be selfish."
When I was a kid, I loved this book.
(For you moral guardians out there, even at age eight I recognized that the
book was a *joke*.)
As for there being four piggies, you'll note that there's hardly ever four
or two of anything in myths, fables, and children's stories - it's *always*
three - three witches, three brothers, three fates. People like for there
to be three things. I don't know why.
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