THE PARSON AND BUTCHER.

A parson and a butcher chanced, they say,

To meet and moralize one Sabbath day.

“Ah!” cries the parson, “all things good and fair,

All that is virtuous, wise, belovéd, rare,

Is sure the first to feel the stroke of fate;

While vice and folly have a longer date.”

“True,” cries the butcher, “for it is decreed,

The fattest pig, alas! must soonest bleed.”