_The Prince Listens to a Curious Discourse_ I stood perfectly still in the roadway, and I know that my mouth hung open as I listened. The wasp buzzed into my ear a kind of rapid, droning song, so low that I had to strain my attention a little to catch it all, and these were the words I heard: “I know it’s rude to speak to you, it’s something I but seldom do, to speak before I’m spoken to, Or buttonhole a stranger; Excuse me if I do not pause to think just now of social laws, I can not spare the time, because I’m in the gravest danger; In gravest danger, yes, it’s true, I’m sure I don’t know what I’ll do, I’ll positively die if you Refuse me your assistance; Come, follow me without delay, I pray you do not say me nay, it’s life or death,--and anyway It’s scarcely any distance. “My lot is sad in the extreme, I really am not what I seem, I once was held in high esteem By every friend and neighbor: A man entirely free of guile, who lived but in his children’s smile, and kept them all in modest style By hard and patient labor, A man of pleasing manners who, whatever other men might do, spoke seldom unless spoken to, A practice much commended; My trade in such a way I plied upon the highway far and wide (I say it with a modest pride) I scarcely once offended. “It used to be my pleasant way (it always made my work seem play) to take the air from day to day,-- Unless, of course,’twas raining,-- Upon the road to watch and wait from early morn to rather late, but always coming home by eight (Such was my early training), I used to watch and wait, I say, and when a trav’ler came my way, which happened every other day Unless too cold or sunny, I never spoke a word, not I, I merely breathed a patient sigh, and held my trusty blade on high And took from him his money. “’Twas thus I kept my children ten, a decent, worthy citizen, the happiest of mortal men My humble sphere adorning, The father of ten daughters fair who needed tons of clothes to wear, and that was why I took the air Upon the road each morning, But oh, alas for them and me, it’s over now, as you may see, and you are incontestably Our only hope remaining; And all our truly dreadful plight is just because one rainy night I simply for a moment quite Forgot my early training.