Aesop (620 - 564 BC) was a Greek slave noted for his storytelling. His fables were originally shared orally but were eventually collected in written form. The fables in the children's book from which this poem comes were edited and turned into rhymes by Walter Crane (1845 - 1915), an English artist and illustrator, and his friend, William James Linton (1812 - 1897), a poet and painter.