Page:Florian - The Fables, 1888.djvu/123

More fully to explain the case.
If I, like you, could climb a tree,
Indeed, you well may credit me,
I had been with you long ere this,
To show how great my pleasure is."
Now squirrels though not bred in schools.
Are not by any means all fools;
And ours was shrewd enough to see
Quite through the fox's knavery.
So he replied in tones most kind:—
"I am delighted, friend, to find
That we so near related are.
Your happiness I fully share;
And I shall hurry to descend.
But ere I come I have a friend
That I would introduce to you.
He is a near relation too:
One who is all in all to me,
Whom you'll be glad, perhaps, to see;
He's sleeping in that hole below;
Knock at the door and call him out:
He'll warmly welcome you, I know,
On learning what you've come about."
Old Reynard hurries to the door,
Hoping to get one squirrel more;
But on the instant that he knocks,
The dog, awak'd from slumbers sound,
Springs out, and at a single bound,
Upon the spot kills Mister Fox.

The offices of a true friend