The Wolf and the Dog by Jean de La Fontaine

A prowling wolf, whose shaggy skin / (So strict the watch of dogs had been) / Hid little but his bones, / Once met a mastiff dog astray. / A prouder, fatter, sleeker Tray, / No human mortal owns. / Sir Wolf in famish'd plight, / Would fain have made a ration / Upon his fat relation; / But then he first must fight; / And well the dog seem'd able / To save from wolfish table / His carcass snug and tight. / So, then, in civil conversation / The wolf express'd his admiration / Of Tray's fine case. Said Tray, politely, / 'Yourself, good sir, may be as sightly; / Quit but the woods, advised by me. / For all your fellows here, I see, / Are shabby wretches, lean and gaunt, / Belike to die of haggard want. / With such a pack, of course it follows, / One fights for every bit he swallows. / Come, then, with me, and share / On equal terms our princely fare. ' / 'But what with you / Has one to do? ' / Inquires the wolf. 'Light work indeed,' / Replies the dog; 'you only need / To bark a little now and then, / To chase off duns and beggar men, / To fawn on friends that come or go forth, / Your master please, and so forth; / For which you have to eat / All sorts of well-cook'd meat -- / Cold pullets, pigeons, savoury messes -- / Besides unnumber'd fond caresses. ' / The wolf, by force of appetite, / Accepts the terms outright, / Tears glistening in his eyes. / But faring on, he spies / A gall'd spot on the mastiff's neck. / 'What's that? ' he cries. 'O, nothing but a speck. ' / 'A speck? ' 'Ay, ay; 'tis not enough to pain me; / Perhaps the collar's mark by which they chain me. ' / 'Chain! chain you! What! run you not, then, / Just where you please, and when? ' / 'Not always, sir; but what of that? ' / 'Enough for me, to spoil your fat! / It ought to be a precious price / Which could to servile chains entice; / For me, I'll shun them while I've wit. ' / So ran Sir Wolf, and runneth yet.[1]

[1]: Phaedrus, III. 7. -- The references to the Fables of Phaedrus are to Bohn's edition, which is from the critical edition of Orellius, 1831.