A Capon, who had strong reasons for thinking that the time of his
sacrifice was near at hand, carefully avoided coming into close
quarters with any of the farm servants or domestics of the estate on
which he lived. A glimpse that he had once caught of the kitchen, with
its blazing fire, and the head cook, like an executioner, with a
formidable knife chopping off the heads of some of his companions, had
been sufficient to keep him ever after in dread.
Hence, one day when he was wanted for roasting, all calling, clucking,
and coaxing of the cook's assistants were in vain.
"How deaf and dull you must be," said a Falcon to the Capon, "not to
hear when you are called, or to see when you are wanted! You should
take pattern by me. I never let my master call me twice."
"Ah," answered the Capon, "if Falcons were called like Capons, to be
run upon a spit and set before the kitchen fire, they would be just as
slow to come and just as hard of hearing as I am now."