Read "The Ox and the Grasshopper" by Tomás de Iriarte online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
As in a field the sturdy Ox was ploughing, / A Grasshopper, close by him, shrilly sang out; / "Ah! what a crooked furrow, friend, you're making!
Then the Ox answered, -- "Sure, my little lady, / If every other furrow were not drawn straight, / You never would perceive that this was crooked; / Stop, then, reproaches so unjust and futile; / For well I serve my master, and he heeds not / A single failure, in so much accomplished."
Now let the captious critic that presumeth, -- / Vain Grasshopper, the useful Ox reproaching, -- / To drag to light, from works of sterling merit, / Some petty blemish, take to himself our meaning.