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45 Läsebok. X:o 63—64.
The goat remarked her pulse was high,
Her languid head, her heavy eye;
»My back», says he, may do you harm;
The sheep’s at hand, and wool is warm».
The sheep was feeble and complain’d
His sides a load of wool sustain’d;
Said he was slow, confess’d his fears;
For hounds eat sheep as well as hares.
She now the trotting calf adress’d
To save from death a friend distress’d. —
»Shall I», says he, »of tender age,
In this important care engage?
Older and abler pass’d you by:
How strong are those! How weak am 1!
Should I presume to bear you hence,
Those friends of mine might take offence.
Excuse me then. You know my heart,
But dearest friends, alas! must part.
How shall we all lament! — Adieu!
For see, the hounds are just in view».
John Gay.
57. The Discontented Pendulum.
An old clock, that had stood for fifty years, in a farmer’s
kitchen without giving its owner any cause of complaint,
early one summer’s morning, before the family was stirring,
stopped. Upon this the dial-plate (if we may credit the
fable) changed countenance with alarm, — the hands made
an ineffectual effort to continue their course, the wheels
remained motionless with surprise, the weights hung
speechless, each member felt disposed to lay the blame on the
others. At length the dial instituted a formal inquiry into
the cause of the stop; when hands, wheels, weights, with one
voice, protested their innocence. But now a faint tick was
heard below from the pendulum, who thus spoke :i— »I
confess myself to be the sole cause of the present stoppage, and
am willing, for the general satisfaction, to assign my reasons.
The truth is that I am tired of ticking». Upon hearing
this, the old clock became so enraged that it was on the
point of striking. »Lazy wire!» exclaimed the dial-plate. »As
to that», replied the pendulum, »it is vastly easy for you,
Mistress Dial, who have always, as every body knows, set
yourself up above me, — it is vastly easy for you, I say, to
accuse other people of laziness! — You, who have had
nothing to do all your life but to stare people in the face, and
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