In musing contemplation warm,

His steps misled him to a farm:

Where, on the ladder’s topmost round,

A peasant stood. The hammer’s sound

Shook the weak barn. ‘Say, friend, what care

Calls for thy honest labour there?’

“The clown, with surly voice, replies:

‘Vengeance aloud for justice cries.

This kite, by daily rapine fed,

My hens’ annoy, my turkeys’ dread,