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from The Fables of La Fontaine

The Two Mules

Two mules
were bearing on their backs,
One, oats;
the other, silver of the tax.
The latter, glorying on his load,
Marched proudly forward on the road;
And, from the jingle of his bell,
'Twas plain he liked his burden well.
But in a wild-wood glen
A band of robber men
Rushed forth upon the twain.

Well with the silver-pleased,
They by the bridle siezed
The treasure-mule so vain.
Poor mule! in struggling to repel
His ruthless foes, he fell
Stabbed through; and, with a bitter sighing,
He cried, "Is this the lot they promised me?
"My humble friend from danger free,
"While, weltering in my goore, I'm dying?"

"My friend," his fellow-mule replied,
"It is not well to have one's work too high.
"If thou hadst been a miller's drudge, as I,
"Thou wouldst not thus have died."

 

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(A french fabulist, Jean de la Fontaine was born in Chateau-Thierry in 1621. The accompanying illustrations are details from gouaches by Marc Chagall.)