Page:Fables by La Fontaine translated by Elizur Wright.djvu/75

 BOOK ONE.

THE WOLF AND THE DOG.«

A PROWLING wolf, whose shaggy skin

(So strict the watch of dogs had been)

Hid litde but his bones,

Once met a mastiff dog astray.

A prouder, fatter, sleeker Tray,

No human mortal owns.

Sir Wolf, in famished plight,

Would fain have made a ration

Upon his fat relation ;

But then he first must fight ;

And well the dog seemed able

To save from wolfish table

His carcass snug and tight.

So, then, in civil conversation,

The wolf expressed his admiration

Of Tray's fine case. Said Tray, politely,


 * Yourself, good sir, may be as sightly ;

Quit but the woods, advised by me.

For all your fellows here, I see.

Are shabby wretches, lean and gaunt,

Belike to die of haggard want.

With such a pack, of course, it follows,

One fights for every bit he swallows.