When poor men to expenses run, And ape their betters, they’re undone. An Ox the Frog a-grazing view’d, And envying his magnitude, She puffs her wrinkled skin, and tries To vie with his enormous size: Then asks her young to own at least That she was bigger than the beast. They answer, No. With might and main She swells and strains, and swells again. “Now for it, who has got the day?” The Ox is larger still, they say. At length, with more and more ado, She raged and puffed, and burst in two. XXV. THE DOG AND THE CROCODILE. Who give bad precepts to the wise, And cautious men with guile advise, Not only lose their toil and time, But slip into sarcastic rhyme. The dogs that are about the Nile, Through terror of the Crocodile, Are therefore said to drink and run. It happen’d on a day, that one, As scamp’ring by the river side, Was by the Crocodile espied: “Sir, at your leisure drink, nor fear The least design or treach’ry here.” “That,” says the Dog, “ma’m, would I do With all my heart, and thank you too, But as you can on dog’s flesh dine, You shall not taste a bit of mine.” XXVI. THE FOX AND THE STORK. One should do injury to none; But he that has th’ assault begun, Ought, says the fabulist, to find The dread of being served in kind, A Fox, to sup within his cave The Stork an invitation gave, Where, in a shallow dish, was pour’d Some broth, which he himself devour’d; While the poor hungry Stork was fain Inevitably to abstain. The Stork, in turn, the Fox invites, And brings her liver and her lights In a tall flagon, finely minced, And thrusting in her beak, convinced The Fox that he in grief must fast, While she enjoy’d the rich repast. Then, as in vain he lick’d the neck, The Stork was heard her guest to check, “That every one the fruits should bear Of their example, is but fair.” XXVII. THE DOG, TREASURE, AND VULTURE. A Dog, while scratching up the ground, ’Mongst human bones a treasure found; But as his sacrilege was great, To covet riches was his fate, And punishment of his offence; He therefore never stirr’d from thence, But both in hunger and the cold, With anxious care he watch’d the gold, Till wholly negligent of food, A ling’ring death at length ensued. Upon his corse a Vulture stood, And thus descanted:-- “It is good, O Dog, that there thou liest bereaved Who in the highway wast conceived, And on a scurvy dunghill bred, Hadst royal riches in thy head.” XXVIII. THE FOX AND EAGLE.