The Cat and the Fox by Jean de La Fontaine

The cat and fox, when saints were all the rage, / Together went on pilgrimage. / Arch hypocrites and swindlers, they, / By sleight of face and sleight of paw, / Regardless both of right and law, / Contrived expenses to repay, / By eating many a fowl and cheese, / And other tricks as bad as these. / Disputing served them to beguile / The road of many a weary mile. / Disputing! but for this resort, / The world would go to sleep, in short. / Our pilgrims, as a thing of course, / Disputed till their throats were hoarse. / Then, dropping to a lower tone, / They talk'd of this, and talk'd of that, / Till Renard whisper'd to the cat, / 'You think yourself a knowing one: / How many cunning tricks have you? / For I've a hundred, old and new, / All ready in my haversack. ' / The cat replied, 'I do not lack, / Though with but one provided; / And, truth to honour, for that matter, / I hold it than a thousand better. ' / In fresh dispute they sided; / And loudly were they at it, when / Approach'd a mob of dogs and men. / 'Now,' said the cat, 'your tricks ransack, / And put your cunning brains to rack, / One life to save; I'll show you mine -- / A trick, you see, for saving nine. ' / With that, she climb'd a lofty pine. / The fox his hundred ruses tried, / And yet no safety found. / A hundred times he falsified / The nose of every hound. -- / Was here, and there, and everywhere, / Above, and under ground; / But yet to stop he did not dare, / Pent in a hole, it was no joke, / To meet the terriers or the smoke. / So, leaping into upper air, / He met two dogs, that choked him there.

Expedients may be too many, / Consuming time to choose and try. / On one, but that as good as any, / 'Tis best in danger to rely.