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SECTION I.

FABLES.

1. Write a Poetical Version of each of the following Fables.

MODELS.

I.-The Ant and the Grasshopper.

In the winter season, a commonwealth of ants were busily employed in the management and preservation of their corn, which they exposed to the air in heaps, round about the avenues of their little country habitation. A Grasshopper, who had chanced to outlive the summer, and was ready to starve with cold and hunger, approached them with great humility, and begged that they would relieve his necessity with one grain of wheat or rye. One of the Ants asked him, how he had disposed of his time in summer, that he had not taken pains and laid in a stock as they had done. "Alas! gentlemen," said he, "I passed away the time merrily and pleasantly in drinking, singing, and dancing, and never once thought of winter." "If that is the case," replied the Ant, "all I have to say is, that those who drink, sing, and dance in the summer, must starve in the winter."

Poetical Version.

"Twas that black season of the year,
In which no smiles, no charms appear;
Bare were the trees; the rivers froze;
The mountain-tops were clad with snows;
When, lodging scarce, and victuals scant,
A Grasshopper addressed an Ant ;
And, in a supplicating tone,

Begged he would make her case his own:

"It was, indeed, a bitter task
To those who were unused to ask;
Yet she was forced the truth to say,
She had not broken fast that day;
His worship, though with plenty blessed,
Knew how to pity the distressed;
A grain of corn to her was gold,
And Heaven would yield him fifty-fold."
The Ant beheld her wretched plight,
Nor seemed unfeeling at the sight;
Yet, still inquisitive to know

How she became reduced so low,

Ask'd her, we'll e'en suppose in rhyme,"What she did all the summer time?" "In summer time, good Sir," said she, "Ah! these were merry months with me! I thought of nothing but delight, And sung unceasing day and night: Through yonder meadows did you pass, You must have heard me in the grass." "Ah!" cried the Ant, and knit his brow: "But 'tis enough, I hear you now; And, madam songstress, to be plain, You seek my charity in vain :

What! shall the industrious yield his due To thriftless, thoughtless folks like you! Some corn I have, but none to spare; Next summer learn to take more care, And, in your frolic moods, remember, July is followed by December."

Another Version.

A Grasshopper, whose sprightly song
Had lasted all the summer long,
At length, when wintry gales assail her,
Perceived her old resources fail her;
No tiny worm, or slender fly,
Can now her ready food supply.
Of neighbour Ant, in humble strain,
She begs a little loan of grain;
And whilst her suit she thus preferred,
Engag'd an insect's honest word,

She would, next Lammas, to the day,
Both principal and interest pay.

The prudent, cautious Ant, 'tis said,
Holds borrowing in a sort of dread;

And (from this charge we'll not defend her)
Abhors the very name of lender—

With importunity grown weary,

She checks it with this single query:

"Pray, neighbour, how d'ye spend your summer?"

"I charm, an't please you, every comer :
All through the season, every day,

I sing the merry hours away."

"Oh!" cries the Ant, and bars the door
Which safely guards her winter store ;-
"I'm glad such sports your means allow ;
You'd better practise dancing now!"

II.-The Fox and the Crow.

A crow having taken a piece of cheese from a cottage window, flew up with it into a high tree in order to eat it at leisure. Here she was observed by a fox, who seated himself at the foot of the tree, and began to compliment her upon her beauty. "I protest," says Reynard, "I never observed it before, but your feathers are of a more delicate white than anything I ever saw in my life! Ah! what a fine shape and graceful turn of body is there! And I make no question but you have a tolerable voice! If it is but as fine as your complexion, I don't know a bird that can pretend to stand in competition with you." The crow, tickled with this very civil language, nestled and wriggled about, and hardly knew where she was; but thinking the fox a little dubious as to the particular of her voice, and having a mind to set him right in that matter, she began to sing, and in the same instant, let the cheese drop out of her mouth. This being what the fox wanted, he snapped it up in a moment and trotted away, laughing to himself at the easy credulity of the crow.

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Sly Reynard, not tired,
Her plumage admired:

"How charming! how brilliant its hue! The voice must be fine,

Of a bird so divine,

Ah, let me just hear it-pray do.

Believe me, I long

To hear a sweet song."
The silly crow foolishly tries;

But she scarce gave one squall,
When the cheese she let fall,
And the fox ran away with the prize.

EXERCISES.

I-The Eagle and the Crow.

An eagle flew down from the top of a high rock, and settled upon the back of a lamb; and then instantly flying up into the air again, bore his bleeding prize aloft in his talons. A crow, who sat upon an elm, and beheld this exploit, resolved to imitate it; so flying down upon the back of a ram, and entangling his claws in the wool, he fell a-chattering, and attempted to fly, by which means he drew upon him the observation of the shepherd, who, finding the crow's feet hampered in the fleece of the ram, easily took him, and gave him to his boys for their sport and diversion.

II.-The Shepherd's Boy

A certain shepherd's boy kept his sheep upon a common, and, in sport and wantonness, would often cry out, "The wolf! the wolf!" By this means he several times drew the husbandmen in an adjoining field from their work, who, finding themselves deluded, resolved for the future to take no notice of his alarm. Soon after, the wolf came indeed; the boy cried out in earnest; but no heed being given to his cries, the sheep were devoured by the wolf.

III.-The Oak and the Reed.

An oak, which hung over the bank of a river, was blown down by a violent storm of wind; and as it was carried along by the stream, some of its boughs brushed against a reed which grew near the shore. This circumstance struck the oak with admiration; and he could not forbear asking the reed how he came to stand so secure and unhurt in a tempest, which had

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