human
How do you like my Menagerie, enquired the Dwarf.
gpt
Rough and ready, perhaps, but as docile as a flat-iron if you treat them properly.
human
It is just like the Zoo, declared Willie.
gpt
Or the animals in Æsop's Fables,
human
Good! Good! he cried.
gpt
Æsop and the Zoo! Ha! Ha! He! He! Anybody can be a Zoo but only one can be Æsop, and I am he!
human
Æsop! Are you really Mr Æsop, the Phrygian Philosopher?
gpt
corrected Willie.
human
I am glad we have met you, because now, perhaps, you will kindly tell us what a Fable really is.
gpt
A Fable, said the merry Æsop, with a twinkle in his witty eyes,
human
Ah! that is only your fun, said Willie sagely,
gpt
I don't know, answered Æsop gravely.
human
But the Commentators and Editors do give a lot of applications and morals to the tales of my animals, don't they?
gpt
I like a tale with a moral, averred Maude,
human
Ah! replied Mr Æsop,
gpt
I don't make proverbs. There are too many already, but a proverb usually seems to me to be something you always theoretically remember to practically forget.