No answer those compulsionists in dispute sought.
The fox, the deer, the hare, and eke the sly jackal,
Were fain to quit compulsion’s cause, for good and all.
A treaty they concluded with the forest king,
That he, by this concession, should not lose a thing.100
His daily ration ready always should be found;
And he should have no cause to trespass on their ground.
Lots they would cast among themselves from day to day.
On whom the lot should fall, he’d be the lion’s prey.
But lo, at length the lot upon the hare did light.