The Oyster and the Litigants

Two pilgrims on the sand espied / An oyster thrown up by the tide. / In hope, both swallow'd ocean's fruit; / But ere the fact there came dispute. / While one stoop'd down to take the prey, / The other push'd him quite away. / Said he, ''Twere rather meet / To settle which shall eat. / Why, he who first the oyster saw / Should be its eater, by the law; / The other should but see him do it. ' / Replied his mate, 'If thus you view it, / Thank God the lucky eye is mine. ' / 'But I've an eye not worse than thine,' / The other cried, 'and will be cursed, / If, too, I didn't see it first. ' / 'You saw it, did you? Grant it true, / I saw it then, and felt it too. ' / Amidst this sweet affair, / Arrived a person very big, / Ycleped Sir Nincom Periwig.[1] / They made him judge, -- to set the matter square. / Sir Nincom, with a solemn face, / Took up the oyster and the case: / In opening both, the first he swallow'd, / And, in due time, his judgment follow'd. / 'Attend: the court awards you each a shell / Cost free; depart in peace, and use them well. ' / Foot up the cost of suits at law, / The leavings reckon and awards, / The cash you'll see Sir Nincom draw, / And leave the parties -- purse and cards.[2]

[1]: _Sir Nincom Periwig_. -- The name in La Fontaine is Perrin Dandin, which is also that of the peasant judge in Rabelais (Book III., ch. 41), and the judge in Racine's "Plaideurs" (produced in 1668). Molière's "George Dandin" (produced 1664), may also have helped La Fontaine to the name. The last-mentioned character is a farmer, but, like the others, he is a species of incapable; and the word dandin in the old French dictionaries is given as signifying inaptness or incapacity.