Explore "Fortune and the Boy" by Jean de La Fontaine on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
Beside a well, uncurb'd and deep, / A schoolboy laid him down to sleep: / (Such rogues can do so anywhere.) / If some kind man had seen him there, / He would have leap'd as if distracted; / But Fortune much more wisely acted; / For, passing by, she softly waked the child, / Thus whispering in accents mild: / 'I save your life, my little dear, / And beg you not to venture here / Again, for had you fallen in, / I should have had to bear the sin; / But I demand, in reason's name, / If for your rashness I'm to blame? ' / With this the goddess went her way. / I like her logic, I must say. / There takes place nothing on this planet, / But Fortune ends, whoe'er began it. / In all adventures good or ill, / We look to her to foot the bill. / Has one a stupid, empty pate, / That serves him never till too late, / He clears himself by blaming Fate! [1]
[1]: Aesop.