The Two Goats

Summary

This piece is a short fable that delivers a lesson about the consequences of pride and stubbornness. It tells the story of two goats who encounter one another while traversing a precarious path over a deep chasm. Both are too proud to allow the other to cross first, so they attempt to pass each other on the narrow log. As a result, they meet in the middle, each unwilling to stand aside, ultimately leading to both falling into the torrent below. The story serves as an illustration of how insistence on one's way and failure to compromise can lead to mutual downfall, offering a valuable moral regarding the importance of humility and cooperation.

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Two Goats, frisking gayly on the rocky steeps of a mountain valley, chanced to meet, one on each side of a deep chasm through which poured a mighty mountain torrent. The trunk of a fallen tree formed the only means of crossing the chasm, and on this not even two squirrels could have passed each other in safety. The narrow path would have made the bravest tremble. Not so our Goats. Their pride would not permit either to stand aside for the other.

One set her foot on the log. The other did likewise. In the middle they met horn to horn. Neither would give way, and so they both fell, to be swept away by the roaring torrent below.