The Horse and the Wolf by Jean de La Fontaine

A wolf, what time the thawing breeze / Renews the life of plants and trees, / And beasts go forth from winter lair / To seek abroad their various fare, -- / A wolf, I say, about those days, / In sharp look-out for means and ways, / Espied a horse turn'd out to graze. / His joy the reader may opine. / 'Once got,' said he, 'this game were fine; / But if a sheep, 'twere sooner mine. / I can't proceed my usual way; / Some trick must now be put in play. ' / This said, / He came with measured tread, / As if a healer of disease, -- / Some pupil of Hippocrates, -- / And told the horse, with learned verbs, / He knew the power of roots and herbs, -- / Whatever grew about those borders, -- / And not at all to flatter / Himself in such a matter, / Could cure of all disorders. / If he, Sir Horse, would not conceal / The symptoms of his case, / He, Doctor Wolf, would gratis heal; / For that to feed in such a place, / And run about untied, / Was proof itself of some disease, / As all the books decide. / 'I have, good doctor, if you please,' / Replied the horse, 'as I presume, / Beneath my foot, an aposthume. ' / 'My son,' replied the learned leech, / 'That part, as all our authors teach, / Is strikingly susceptible / Of ills which make acceptable / What you may also have from me -- / The aid of skilful surgery; / Which noble art, the fact is, / For horses of the blood I practise. ' / The fellow, with this talk sublime, / Watch'd for a snap the fitting time. / Meanwhile, suspicious of some trick, / The wary patient nearer draws, / And gives his doctor such a kick, / As makes a chowder of his jaws. / Exclaim'd the wolf, in sorry plight, / 'I own those heels have served me right. / I err'd to quit my trade, / As I will not in future; / Me nature surely made / For nothing but a butcher. '[1]

[1]: Aesop; also in Faerno.