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FABLE II
(Versified from the French.)
A merry fox, in former times
(I owe a fable for my rhymes),
A stork invited, to partake
At his expense, of a beef-steak,
And make him merry at his hall,
Away 'mid forest dense and tall,
Where Reynard oft found good defence,
When pressed right hard for an offence:
As helping goose or pullet rich
Down from roost or up from ditch;
Or, as the Scriptures doth propound,
Lifting a neighbour from the ground,
That near some highway he had met,
And deemed for house and home hard set.
Well, to our tale—his note polite
The stork did answer with a flight,
