It was a slight rat-tat,
That put their Joys to rout;
Out ran the City Rat;
His guest, too, scampered out.
Our rats but fairly quit,
The fearful knocking ceased,
"Return we," said the cit,
"To finish there our feast."
"No," said the Rustic Rat;
"To-morrow dine with me.
I'm not offended at
Your feast so grand and free,
"For I've no fare resembling;
But then I eat at leisure,
And would not swap for pleasure
So mixed with fear and trembling."
The Ploughman and His Sons
A wealthy Ploughman drawing near his end
Call'd in his Sons apart from every friend,
And said, "When of your sire bereft,
The heritage our fathers left
Guard well, nor sell a single field.
A treasure in it is conceal'd:
The place, precisely, I don't know,
But industry will serve to show.
The harvest past. Time's forelock take,
And search with plough, and spade, and rake;
Turn over every inch of sod,
Nor leave unsearch'd a single clod."
The father died. The Sons in vain—
Turn'd o'er the soil, and o'er again;
That year their acres bore
More grain than e'er before.
Though hidden money found they none,
Yet had their Father wisely done,
To show by such a measure
That toil itself is treasure.
The farmer's patient care and toil
Are oftener wanting than the soil.
The Fox, the Wolf, and the Horse
A Fox, though young, by no means raw,
Had seen a Horse, the first he ever saw:
"Ho! neighbour Wolf," said he to one quite green,
"A creature in our meadow I have seen—
Sleek, grand! I seem to see him yet—
The finest beast I ever met."
"Is he a stouter one than we?"
The Wolf demanded, eagerly;
"Some picture of him let me see."
"If I could paint," said Fox, "I should delight
T' anticipate your pleasure at the sight;
But come; who knows? perhaps it is a prey
By fortune offer'd in our way."
They went. The Horse, turn'd loose to graze,
Not liking much their looks and ways,
Was just about to gallop off.
"Sir," said the Fox, "your humble servants, we
Make bold to ask you what your name may be."
The Horse, an animal with brains enough,
Replied, "Sirs, you yourselves may read my name;
My shoer round my heel hath writ the same."
The Fox excus'd himself for want of knowledge:
"Me, sir, my parents did not educate,
So poor, a hole was their entire estate.
My friend, the Wolf, however, taught at college,
Could read it, were it even Greek."
The Wolf, to flattery weak,
Approached to verify the boast;
For which four teeth he lost.
The high raised hoof came down with such a blow
As laid him bleeding on the ground full low.
"My brother," said the Fox, "this shows how just
What once was taught me by a fox of wit—
Which on thy jaws this animal hath writ—
'All unknown things the wise mistrust.'"
The Woodman and Mercury