Page:Fables by La Fontaine translated by Elizur Wright.djvu/73

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BOOK ONE.
5

Which less, if you please,
Is doubtless worth the cheese.
A bit too late, Sir Raven swore
The rogue should never cheat him more.



III.

THE FROG THAT WISHED TO BE AS BIG AS THE OX.[1]

The tenant of a bog,
An envious little frog
Not bigger than an egg,
A stately bullock spies,
And, smitten with his size,
Attempts to be as big.
With earnestness and pains
She stretches, swells, and strains,
And says, 'Sir Frog, look here! see me!
Is this enough?' 'No, no.'
'Well, then, is this?' 'Poh! poh!
Enough! you don't begin to be.'
And thus the reptile sits,
Enlarging till she splits.
The world is full of folks
Of just such wisdom:
The lordly dome provokes
The cit to build his dome;
And, really, there is no telling
How much great men set little ones a swelling.

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