Explore "The Two Mules" by Jean de La Fontaine on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
Two mules were bearing on their backs, / One, oats; the other, silver of the tax.[1] / The latter glorying in his load, / March'd proudly forward on the road; / And, from the jingle of his bell, / 'Twas plain he liked his burden well. / But in a wild-wood glen / A band of robber men / Rush'd forth upon the twain. / Well with the silver pleased, / They by the bridle seized / The treasure-mule so vain. / Poor mule! in struggling to repel / His ruthless foes, he fell / Stabb'd through; and with a bitter sighing, / He cried, 'Is this the lot they promised me? / My humble friend from danger free, / While, weltering in my gore, I'm dying? ' / 'My friend,' his fellow-mule replied, / 'It is not well to have one's work too high. / If thou hadst been a miller's drudge, as I, / Thou wouldst not thus have died.'
[1]: _The silver of the tax_. -- An allusion to the French _gabelle_, or old salt tax, which, like all taxes levied upon the mass of the people, was a very productive one. Its collection caused several peasants' insurrections.