The Fables of Florian (tr. Phelps)/The Two Bald Heads

by Jean Pierre Claris de Florian

FABLE XXIX.
THE TWO BALD-HEADS.

By chance two bald-head beggars found
A something shining in the ground:
       Each strove to have the prize.
They fought, and fought, with kicks and blows;

Pull'd hair and tore their ragged clothes,
       And black'd each other's eyes.

He who at last the object gain'd,
Lost his few locks that still remain'd;
And when his prize he look'd upon,
Lo! 'twas a broken comb he'd won!