Part 12 (1/2)

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.

”O! O!” he cried; ”I bleed! I bleed!

And this is what has done the deed!

But, truly, what had been my fate, Had this had half a pumpkin's weight!

I see that G.o.d had reasons good, And all His works were understood.”

Thus home he went in humbler mood.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE ACORN AND THE PUMPKIN.]

The Fool who Sold Wisdom.

A fool, in town, did wisdom cry; The people, eager, flock'd to buy.

Each for his money got, Paid promptly on the spot, Besides a box upon the head, Two fathoms' length of thread.

The most were vex'd--but quite in vain, The public only mock'd their pain.

The wiser they who nothing said, But pocketed the box and thread.

To search the meaning of the thing Would only laughs and hisses bring.

Hath reason ever guaranteed The wit of fools in speech or deed?

'Tis said of brainless heads in France, The cause of what they do is chance.

One dupe, however, needs must know What meant the thread, and what the blow So ask'd a sage, to make it sure.

”They're both hieroglyphics pure,”

The sage replied without delay; ”All people well advised will stay From fools this fibre's length away, Or get--I hold it sure as fate-- The other symbol on the pate.

So far from cheating you of gold, The fool this wisdom fairly sold.”

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE FOOL WHO SOLD WISDOM.]

The Oyster and the Litigants.

Two pilgrims on the sand espied An oyster thrown up by the tide.

In hope, both swallow'd ocean's fruit; But ere the fact there came dispute.