The goblet was deep and wide and full,
The poor man drank like a cow at a pool.
Said the king to the jester—I call it well done
To drink with two mouths instead of one!
Said the king to himself, as he took his seat,
It is quite as good to feed as to eat!
It is better, I do begin to think,
To give to the thirsty than to drink!
And now I have thought of it, said the king,
There might be more of this kind of thing!
The fool heard. The king had not long to wait:
The fool cried aloud at the palace-gate;
The ragged and wretched, the hungry and thin,
Loose in their clothes and tight in their skin,
Gathered in shoals till they filled the hall,
And the king and the fool they fed them all;
And as with good things their plates they piled
The king grew merry as a little child.
On the morrow, early, he went abroad
And sought poor folk in their own abode—