The Frog and the Rat by Jean de La Fontaine

They to bamboozle are inclined, / Saith Merlin,[1] who bamboozled are. / The word, though rather unrefined, / Has yet an energy we ill can spare; / So by its aid I introduce my tale. / A well-fed rat, rotund and hale, / Not knowing either Fast or Lent, / Disporting round a frog-pond went. / A frog approach'd, and, with a friendly greeting, / Invited him to see her at her home, / And pledged a dinner worth his eating, -- / To which the rat was nothing loath to come. / Of words persuasive there was little need: / She spoke, however, of a grateful bath; / Of sports and curious wonders on their path; / Of rarities of flower, and rush, and reed: / One day he would recount with glee / To his assembled progeny / The various beauties of these places, / The customs of the various races, / And laws that sway the realms aquatic, / (She did not mean the hydrostatic! ) / One thing alone the rat perplex'd, -- / He was but moderate as a swimmer. / The frog this matter nicely fix'd / By kindly lending him her / Long paw, which with a rush she tied / To his; and off they started, side by side. / Arrived upon the lakelet's brink, / There was but little time to think. / The frog leap'd in, and almost brought her / Bound guest to land beneath the water. / Perfidious breach of law and right! / She meant to have a supper warm / Out of his sleek and dainty form. / Already did her appetite / Dwell on the morsel with delight. / The gods, in anguish, he invokes; / His faithless hostess rudely mocks; / He struggles up, she struggles down. / A kite, that hovers in the air, / Inspecting everything with care, / Now spies the rat belike to drown, / And, with a rapid wing, / Upbears the wretched thing, / The frog, too, dangling by the string! / The joy of such a double haul / Was to the hungry kite not small. / It gave him all that he could wish -- / A double meal of flesh and fish.

[1]: _Merlin._ -- This is Merlin, the wizard of the old French novels.