Fables of La Fontaine — Fables VII and VIII

THE WALLET.

Said Jupiter one day, "Let all that breathe Come and obeisance make before my throne.

If at his shape or being any grieve, Let them cast fears aside.

I'll hear their groan.

Come, Monkey, you be first to speak.

You see Of animals this goodly company;

Compare their beauties with your own.

Are you content?"

"Why not?

Good gracious me!"

The monkey said, No whit afraid-- "Why not content?

I have four feet like others, My portrait no one sneers at--do they, brothers?

But cousin Bruins hurriedly sketched in, And no one holds his likeness worth a pin."

Then came the Bear.

One thought he would have found Something to grumble at.

Grumble!

no, not he.

He praised his form and shape, but, looking round, Turned critic on the want of symmetry Of the huge shapeless Elephant, whose ears Were much too long; his tail too short, he fears.

The Elephant was next.

Though wise, yet sadly vexed To see good Madam Whale, to his surprise, A cumbrous mountain of such hideous size.

Quick Mrs. Ant thinks the Gnat far too small, Herself colossal.

--Jove dismisses all, Severe on others, with themselves content.

'Mong all the fools who that day homeward went, Our race was far the worst: our wisest souls Lynxes to others', to their own faults moles.

Pardon at home they give, to others grace deny, And keep on neighbours' sins a sleepless eye.

Jove made us so, As we all know, We wear our Wallets in the self-same way-- This current year, as in the bye-gone day: In pouch behind our own defects we store, The faults of others in the one before.

FABLE VIII.

THE SWALLOW AND THE LITTLE BIRDS.

A Swallow, in his travels o'er the earth, Into the law of storms had gained a peep;

Could prophesy them long before their birth, And warn in time the ploughmen of the deep.

Just as the month for sowing hemp came round, The Swallow called the smaller birds together.

"Yon' hand," said he, "which strews along the ground That fatal grain, forbodes no friendly weather.

The day will come, and very soon, perhaps, When yonder crop will help in your undoing-- [Illustration: THE SWALLOW AND THE LITTLE BIRDS.

] When, in the shape of snares and cruel traps, Will burst the tempest which to-day is brewing.

Be wise, and eat the hemp up now or never;

Take my advice."

But no, the little birds, Who thought themselves, no doubt, immensely clever, Laughed loudly at the Swallow's warning words.

Soon after, when the hemp grew green and tall, He begged the Birds to tear it into tatters.

"Prophet of ill," they answered one and all, "Cease chattering about such paltry matters."

The hemp at length was ripe, and then the Swallow, Remarking that "ill weeds were never slow," Continued--"Though it's now too late to follow The good advice I gave you long ago, You still may manage to preserve your lives By giving credit to the voice of reason.

Remain at home, I beg you, with your wives, And shun the perils of the coming season.

You cannot cross the desert or the seas, To settle down in distant habitations;

Make nests, then, in the walls, and there, at ease, Defy mankind and all its machinations."

They scorned his warnings, as in Troy of old Men scorned the lessons that Cassandra taught.

And shortly, as the Swallow had foretold, Great numbers of them in the traps were caught.

To instincts not our own we give no credit, And till misfortune comes, we never dread it.

[Illustration: THE TOWN RAT AND THE COUNTRY RAT.

] FABLE IX.

THE TOWN RAT AND THE COUNTRY RAT.