THE FOX AND THE GEESE. THERE was once a Goose at the point of death, "There's a Mr. Fox," said she, "that I know, To our race he has proved a deadly foe, "Build houses, ere long, of stone or of bricks, For I know, of old, Mr. Reynard's tricks, Thus saying, she died, and her daughters fair,— Of Mr. Fox, their enemy. But Gobble, the youngest, I grieve to say, Because she preferred her own silly way, For she made, with some boards, an open nest, Then quietly laid herself down to rest, And thought she was safe from the Fox. But Reynard, in taking an evening run, Then on to the box he sprang in a trice, Her sisters at home felt anxious and low, And Goosey, determined her fate to know, At last she descried poor Gobble's head, So she told Ganderee she had found her dead, Now Goosey was pretty, but liked her own way, Like Gobble, and some other birds; ""Tis no matter," said she, "if I only obey A part of my mother's last words." |