succor give.” 
     The man replied:—­“Good stork, I cannot tell
     Your way of life:  but this I know full well,
     I caught you with the spoilers of my seed;
     With them, with whom I found you, you must bleed.”

     Walk with the bad, and hate will be as strong
     ’Gainst you as them, e’en though you no man wrong.

     THE PINE

     Some woodmen, bent a forest pine to split,
     Into each fissure sundry wedges fit,
     To keep the void and render work more light. 
     Out groaned the pine, “Why should I vent my spite
     Against the axe which never touched my root,
     So much as these cursed wedges, mine own fruit;
     Which rend me through, inserted here and there!”

     A fable this, intended to declare
     That not so dreadful is a stranger’s blow
     As wrongs which men receive from those they know.

     THE WOMAN AND HER MAID-SERVANTS

     A very careful dame, of busy way,
     Kept maids at home, and these, ere break of day,
     She used to raise as early as cock-crow. 
     They thought ’twas hard to be awakened so,
     And o’er wool-spinning be at work so long;
     Hence grew within them all a purpose strong
     To kill the house-cock, whom they thought to blame
     For all their wrongs.  But no advantage came;
     Worse treatment than the former them befell: 
     For when the hour their mistress could not tell
     At which by night the cock was wont to crow,
     She roused them earlier, to their work to go. 
     A harder lot the wretched maids endured.

     Bad judgment oft hath such results procured.

     THE LAMP

     A lamp that swam with oil, began to boast
     At eve, that it outshone the starry host,
     And gave more light to all.  Her boast was heard: 
     Soon the wind whistled; soon the breezes stirred,
     And quenched its light.  A man rekindled it,
     And said, “Brief is the faint lamp’s boasting fit,
     But the starlight ne’er needs to be re-lit.”

     THE TORTOISE AND THE HARE

     To the shy hare the tortoise smiling spoke,
     When he about her feet began to joke: 
     “I’ll pass thee by, though fleeter than the gale.” 
     “Pooh!” said the hare, “I don’t believe thy tale. 
     Try but one course, and thou my speed shalt know.” 
     “Who’ll fix the prize, and whither we shall go?”
     Of the fleet-footed hare the tortoise asked. 
     To whom he answered, “Reynard shall be tasked
     With this; that subtle fox, whom thou dost see.” 
     The tortoise then (no hesitater she!)
     Kept jogging on, but earliest reached the post;
     The hare, relying on his fleetness, lost
     Space, during sleep, he thought he could recover
     When he awoke.  But then the race was over;
     The tortoise gained her aim, and slept her sleep.