LXXXIX

THE FOX AND THE CAT.

The fox and the cat, as they travelled one day,
With moral discourses cut shorter the way:

“'Tis great” said the fox “to make justice our guide!” "How god-like is mercy!" Grimalkin replied.

Whilst thus they proceeded, a wolf from the wood,
Impatient of hunger, and thirsting for blood,
Rushed forth-as he saw the dull shepherd asleep-
And seized for his supper an innocent sheep.

"In vain, wretched victim, for mercy you bleat,
When mutton's at hand says the wolf" I must eat.”
Grimalkin's astonished !—the fox stood aghast
To see the fell beast at his bloody repast.

"What a wretch" says the cat "'tis the vilest of brutes; Does he feed upon flesh when there's herbage and roots? Cries the fox, "While our oaks give us acorns so good, What a tyrant is this to spill innocent blood!"

Well, onward they marched, and they moralized still,
Till they came where some poultry picked chaff by a mill.
Sly Reynard surveyed them with gluttonous eyes,

And made, spite of morals, a pullet his prize.

A mouse too, that chanced from her covert to stray,
The greedy Grimalkin secured as her prey.

A spider that sat in her web on the wall

Perceived the poor victims, and pitied their fall;
She cried "Of such murders how guiltless am I!"
Then ran to regale on a new-taken fly.

CUNNINGHAM.

XC

THE TOY OF THE GIANT'S CHILD.

Burg Niedeck is a mountain in Alsace, high and strong,
Where once a noble castle stood-the giants held it long;
Its very ruins now are lost, its site is waste and lone,
And if ye seek for giants there, they are all dead and gone.

The giant's daughter once came forth the castle-gate before, And played, with all a child's delight, beside her father's door;

Then sauntering down the precipice, the girl did gladly go, To see, perchance, how matters went in the little world below.

With few and easy steps she passed the mountain and the wood,

At length near Haslach, at the place where mankind dwelt, she stood;

And many a town and village fair, and many a field so green, Before her wondering eyes appeared, a strange and curious

scene.

R

And as she gazed, in wonder lost, on all the scene around,
She saw a peasant at her feet, a-tilling of the ground;

The little creature crawled about so slowly here and there, And, lighted by the morning sun, his plough shone bright and fair.

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Oh, pretty plaything!" cried the child, "I'll take thee home with me,"

Then with her infant hands she spread her kerchief on her

knee,

And cradling horse, and man, and plough, all gently on her

arm,

She bore them home with cautious steps, afraid to do them harm!

She hastes with joyous steps and quick (we know what children are),

And spying soon her father out, she shouted from afar :
"O father, dearest father, such a plaything I have found,
I never saw so fair a one on our own mountain ground."

Her father sat at table then, and drank his wine so mild, And smiling with a parent's smile, he asked the happy child, "What struggling creature hast thou brought so carefully to me?

Thou leap'st for very joy, my girl; come, open, let us see.'

She opes her kerchief carefully, and gladly you may deem, And shows her eager sire the plough, the peasant, and his team;

And when she'd placed before his sight the new found pretty toy,

She clasped her hands, and screamed aloud, and cried for very joy.

But her father looked quite seriously, and shaking slow his head,

"What hast thou brought me home, my child? This is no toy," he said;

"Go, take it quickly back again, and put it down below;

The peasant is no plaything, girl,-how could'st thou think him so?

"So go, without a sigh or sob, and do my will," he said; "For know, without the peasant, girl, we none of us had bread: 'Tis from the peasant's hardy stock the race of giants are ; The peasant is no plaything, child- no- -God forbid he were!"

From the German of Chamisso.

XCI

REPORT OF AN ADJUDGED CASE.

Between Nose and Eyes a strange contest arose,
The spectacles set them unhappily wrong-
The point in dispute was, as all the world knows,
To which the said spectacles ought to belong.

So Tongue was the lawyer, and argued the cause
With a great deal of skill, and a wig full of learning;
While chief baron Ear sat to balance the laws,
So famed for his talent in nicely discerning.

"In behalf of the Nose it will quickly appear,

And your lordship," he said, " will undoubtedly find, That the Nose has had spectacles always in wear, Which amounts to possession time out of mind."

Then holding the spectacles up to the court

"Your lordship observes they are made with a straddle, As wide as the ridge of the nose is; in short, Designed to sit close to it, just like a saddle.

"Again-would your lordship a moment suppose· ('Tis a case that has happened, and may be again) That the visage or countenance had not a nose Pray who would, or who could, wear spectacles then?

"On the whole, it appears, and my argument shows,
With a reasoning the court will never condemn,
That the spectacles plainly were made for the Nose
And the Nose was as plainly intended for them."

Then shifting his side, (as a lawyer knows how,)
He pleaded again in behalf of the Eyes:
But what were his arguments few people know,

For the court did not think they were equally wise.