Patient and still, to take an humble freight;

Within the panniers on an ass he laid

The ponderous grit, and for the portion paid;

This he re-sold, and, with each trifling gift,

Made shift to live, and wretched was the shift.

Now will it be by every reader told

Who was this humble trader, poor and old. -

In vain an author would a name suppress,

From the least hint a reader learns to guess;

Of children lost, our novels sometimes treat,