Part 35 (2/2)

I do not doubt, at all, but that Will be enough to lay him flat.”

But ere he ceased it was too late; The a.s.s had met his cruel fate.

The Monkey and the Leopard

A Monkey and a Leopard were The rivals at a country fair.

Each advertised his own attractions.

Said one, ”Good sirs, the highest place My merit knows; for, of his grace, The King hath seen me face to face; And, judging by his looks and actions, I gave the best of satisfactions.

When I am dead, 'tis plain enough, My skin will make his royal m.u.f.f.

So richly is it streak'd and spotted, So delicately waved and dotted, Its various beauty cannot fail to please.”

And, thus invited, everybody sees; But soon they see, and soon depart.

The Monkey's show-bill to the mart His merits thus sets forth the while, All in his own peculiar style: ”Come, gentlemen, I pray you, come; In magic arts I am at home.

The whole variety in which My neighbour boasts himself so rich Is to his simple skin confined, While mine is living in the mind.

For I can speak, you understand; Can dance, and practise sleight-of-hand; Can jump through hoops, and balance sticks; In short, can do a thousand tricks; One penny is my charge to you, And, if you think the price won't do, When you have seen, then I'll restore, Each man his money at the door.”

_The Ape was not to reason blind; For who in wealth of dress can find Such charms as dwell in wealth of mind?

One meets our ever-new desires, The other in a moment tires.

Alas! how many lords there are, Of mighty sway and lofty mien, Who, like this Leopard at the fair, Show all their talents on the skin!_

The Rat and the Elephant

A Rat, of quite the smallest size, Fix'd on an Elephant his eyes, And jeer'd the beast of high descent Because his feet so slowly went.

Upon his back, three stories high, There sat, beneath a canopy, A certain sultan of renown, His Dog, and Cat, and wife sublime, His parrot, servant, and his wine, All pilgrims to a distant town.

The Rat profess'd to be amazed That all the people stood and gazed With wonder, as he pa.s.s'd the road, Both at the creature and his load.

”As if,” said he, ”to occupy A little more of land or sky Made one, in view of common sense, Of greater worth and consequence!

What see ye, men, in this parade, That food for wonder need be made?

The bulk which makes a child afraid?

In truth, I take myself to be, In all aspects, as good as he.”

And further might have gone his vaunt; But, darting down, the Cat Convinced him that a Rat Is smaller than an elephant.

The Acorn and the Pumpkin

G.o.d's works are good. This truth to prove Around the world I need not move; I do it by the nearest Pumpkin.

”This fruit so large, on vine so small,”

Surveying once, exclaim'd a b.u.mpkin-- ”What could He mean who made us all?

He's left this Pumpkin out of place.

If I had order'd in the case, Upon that oak it should have hung---- A n.o.ble fruit as ever swung To grace a tree so firm and strong.

Indeed, it was a great mistake, As this discovery teaches, That I myself did not partake His counsels whom my curate preaches.

All things had then in order come; This Acorn, for example, Not bigger than my thumb, Had not disgraced a tree so ample.

The more I think, the more I wonder To see outraged proportion's laws, And that without the slightest cause; G.o.d surely made an awkward blunder.”

With such reflections proudly fraught, Our sage grew tired of mighty thought, And threw himself on Nature's lap, Beneath an oak, to take his nap.

Plump on his nose, by lucky hap, An Acorn fell: he waked, and in The scarf he wore beneath his chin, He found the cause of such a bruise As made him different language use.

”Oh! Oh!” he cried; ”I bleed! I bleed!

And this is what has done the deed!

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