The Fox and the Grapes

Some of the stories we know and like are many hundreds of years old. Among them are Aesop’s fables. A fable is a short story made up to teach a lesson. Most fables are about animals. In them animals talk. Many of our common sayings come from fables. “Sour Grapes” is one of them. It comes from the fable “The Fox and the Grapes.” In the story a fox saw a bunch of grapes hanging from a vine. They looked ripe and good to eat. But they were rather high. He jumped and jumped, but he could not reach them. At last he gave up. As he went away he said. “Those grapes were sour anyway.” Now we say, “Sour Grapes!” when someone pretends he does not want something he tried to get but couldn’t.