The Two Bulls and the Frog

Two bulls engaged in shocking battle, / Both for a certain heifer's sake, / And lordship over certain cattle, / A frog began to groan and quake. / 'But what is this to you? ' / Inquired another of the croaking crew. / 'Why, sister, don't you see, / The end of this will be, / That one of these big brutes will yield, / And then be exiled from the field? / No more permitted on the grass to feed, / He'll forage through our marsh, on rush and reed; / And while he eats or chews the cud, / Will trample on us in the mud. / Alas! to think how frogs must suffer / By means of this proud lady heifer! ' / This fear was not without good sense. / One bull was beat, and much to their expense; / For, quick retreating to their reedy bower, / He trod on twenty of them in an hour.

Of little folks it oft has been the fate / To suffer for the follies of the great.[1]

[1]: Phaedrus, I. 30.