"The fat rat," said she, "is your prime minister, the lean rat your people, and the blind rat yourself."
Court Laureate Too Frank.
One of the Shahs of Persia was more anxious than able to acquire fame as a poet. He had just completed a new performance in very "peculiar meter," and summoned the court poet into the royal presence to hear the poem read.
The laureate, when his opinion was asked (in theatrical language), "damned" the composition.
The Shah, enraged at this uncourtly criticism, gave orders that the court poet should be taken to the stable and tied up in the same stall with a donkey. Here the poor sinner remained until his royal rival had perpetrated another poem, when he was again commanded to appear before the throne and submit to a second infliction of sovereign dulness.
He listened in silence while the new poem was read, and at the conclusion, his opinion being required, he fell upon his knees and significantly exclaimed to the royal author:
The Nation's Debt to Mothers.
By GILSON WILLETS.