[88]Of ploughing-time the sign and wintry rains:

Care gnaws his heart who destitute remains

Of the fit yoke: for then the season falls

To feed thy horned steers within their stalls.

Easy to speak the word, “beseech thee friend!

Thy waggon and thy yoke of oxen lend:”

Easy the prompt refusal; “nay, but I

Have need of oxen, and their work is nigh.”

[89]Rich in his own conceit, he then too late

May think to rear the waggon’s timber’d weight: