THE MUFF, THE FAN, AND THE UMBRELLA.
If some absurd presumption show—
In seeking everything to know,
To serve but for a single use
May also be without excuse.
Upon a table, once, together lay
A Muff, Umbrella, and a Fan.
In dialect such as, in a former day,
The Pot unto the Kettle spoke.
The Umbrella silence broke,
And to his two companions thus began:
"Now pretty articles are not ye both!
You, Muff, in winter serve your purpose well;
But, when spring comes about, in idle sloth
In a dark corner must forgotten dwell.
You, Fan, an useless thing become, in turn,
When heat declines in summer's glowing urn,
And cold winds take your office quite away.
Learn now, from me, a broader part to play.
To shield the head from rains of wintry skies,
I, as Umbrella, serve the turn;
Again, like praise I earn
When summer's ardent rays the Parasol defies."
FABLE XV.
THE FROG AND THE TADPOLE.
On Tagus' banks, in artless wonder,
A little Tadpole, on a canebrake gazing,
Long with its mother chatted of the leaves,
Of the huge stalks, and verdure so amazing;
But now the air with the fierce tempest heaves,
And the rough winds the canebrake rent asunder—
A broken cane into the stream fell over;
"Come, look, my child," now said the thoughtful mother,
"Without, so strong, luxuriant and smooth—
Within, all pith and emptiness, forsooth!"
If our good Frog some poets' works had read,
Perchance, of them she might the same have said.