The Wolf, the Mother, and her Child

This wolf another brings to mind, / Who found dame Fortune more unkind, / In that the greedy, pirate sinner, / Was balk'd of life as well as dinner. / As saith our tale, a villager / Dwelt in a by, unguarded place; / There, hungry, watch'd our pillager / For luck and chance to mend his case. / For there his thievish eyes had seen / All sorts of game go out and in -- / Nice sucking calves, and lambs and sheep; / And turkeys by the regiment, / With steps so proud, and necks so bent, / They'd make a daintier glutton weep. / The thief at length began to tire / Of being gnaw'd by vain desire. / Just then a child set up a cry: / 'Be still,' the mother said, 'or I / Will throw you to the wolf, you brat! ' / 'Ha, ha! ' thought he, 'what talk is that! / The gods be thank'd for luck so good! ' / And ready at the door he stood, / When soothingly the mother said, / 'Now cry no more, my little dear; / That naughty wolf, if he comes here, / Your dear papa shall kill him dead. ' / 'Humph! ' cried the veteran mutton-eater. / 'Now this, now that! Now hot, now cool! / Is this the way they change their metre? / And do they take me for a fool? / Some day, a nutting in the wood, / That young one yet shall be my food. ' / But little time has he to dote / On such a feast; the dogs rush out / And seize the caitiff by the throat; / And country ditchers, thick and stout, / With rustic spears and forks of iron, / The hapless animal environ. / 'What brought you here, old head? ' cried one. / He told it all, as I have done. / 'Why, bless my soul! ' the frantic mother said, -- / 'You, villain, eat my little son! / And did I nurse the darling boy, / Your fiendish appetite to cloy? ' / With that they knock'd him on the head. / His feet and scalp they bore to town, / To grace the seigneur's hall, / Where, pinn'd against the wall, / This verse completed his renown: -- / "Ye honest wolves, believe not all / That mothers say, when children squall! "[1]

[1]: Aesop; and others.