SOME CRANES made their feeding grounds on some plowlands newly sown
with wheat. For a long time the Farmer, brandishing an empty sling,
chased them away by the terror he inspired; but when the birds found
that the sling was only swung in the air, they ceased to take any
notice of it and would not move. The Farmer, on seeing this, charged
his sling with stones, and killed a great number. The remaining birds
at once forsook his fields, crying to each other, “It is time for us to
be off to Liliput: for this man is no longer content to scare us, but
begins to show us in earnest what he can do.”
If words suffice not, blows must follow.