The Woodman and His Ax

A fable retold from Fifty Famous Fables by Lida B. McMurry

This fable comes from Fifty Famous Fables, a collection retold by American educator Lida B. McMurry in the early 1900s. The story teaches that honesty is rewarded and greed is not. Fables like this one have been told for thousands of years to help children think about right and wrong. The lesson is simple: tell the truth, even when it is hard.

Band

Purple · Pre-readers and first readers, about 4 to 5

Length

short · about 365 words in 4 sections · 4 pictures

Source

Fifty Famous Fables, Lida B. McMurry · Project Gutenberg

First published

see the About page in the reader

Regions

Canada · United States

Included formats

• · Web reader and PDF
• · EPUB for e-readers
• · Home-print sheet
• · Folded booklet
• · Binder edition (8.5 × 11)
• · Worksheet
• · Quick Check (6 questions) with answer key
• · Read-aloud script

Readers are engineered from the original public-domain text with AI under HummingRead’s published canon and Content Philosophy, checked by automated audit and sampled by a person. Pictures are made with AI to HummingRead’s brief for each story. How a reader is made.