Embedded Files
This is a preprinted envelope. The stamp it pictures, Scott No. 2491a, was issued on June 24, 1995.
Jean de La Fontaine (1621-1695) was a French fabulist; these stamps were issued on the three hundredth anniversary of his death. In this story, a frog, impressed by the ox's size, tries to inflate himself until he is bigger. It doesn't, of course, end well for the frog.
Adapted for children by William Trowbridge Larned (1918), the story goes:
Adapted for children by William Trowbridge Larned (1918), the story goes:
There was a little Frog
Whose home was in a bog,
And he worried 'cause he wasn't big enough.
He sees an ox and cries,
"That's just about my size,
If I stretch myself--Say Sister, see me puff!"
So he blew, blew, blew,
Saying: "Sister, will that do?"
But she shook her head. And then he lost his wits,
For he stretched and puffed again,
Till he cracked beneath the strain,
And burst, and flew about in little bits.
This story is also featured on a stamp from Albania.
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