The Monkey and the Cat by Jean de La Fontaine

Sly Bertrand and Ratto in company sat, / (The one was a monkey, the other a cat,) / Co-servants and lodgers: / More mischievous codgers / Ne'er mess'd from a platter, since platters were flat. / Was anything wrong in the house or about it, / The neighbours were blameless, -- no mortal could doubt it; / For Bertrand was thievish, and Ratto so nice, / More attentive to cheese than he was to the mice. / One day the two plunderers sat by the fire, / Where chestnuts were roasting, with looks of desire. / To steal them would be a right noble affair. / A double inducement our heroes drew there -- / 'Twould benefit them, could they swallow their fill, / And then 'twould occasion to somebody ill. / Said Bertrand to Ratto, 'My brother, to-day / Exhibit your powers in a masterly way, / And take me these chestnuts, I pray. / Which were I but otherwise fitted / (As I am ingeniously witted) / For pulling things out of the flame, / Would stand but a pitiful game. ' / ''Tis done,' replied Ratto, all prompt to obey; / And thrust out his paw in a delicate way. / First giving the ashes a scratch, / He open'd the coveted batch; / Then lightly and quickly impinging, / He drew out, in spite of the singeing, / One after another, the chestnuts at last, -- / While Bertrand contrived to devour them as fast. / A servant girl enters. Adieu to the fun. / Our Ratto was hardly contented, says one. --

No more are the princes, by flattery paid / For furnishing help in a different trade, / And burning their fingers to bring / More power to some mightier king.[1]