FILIAL INGRATITUDE.
Reading edition
A FABLE.
An oak tree falling on the mead, By woodman's stroke laid low, Saw, as a handle to the axe Which wrought the fatal blow, A bough that once upon his breast Drew nurture from his heart, And as a tender, helpless shoot, Grew of his life a part. "Woe! woe!" he sighed, as on the earth He drew expiring breath: "That what I nurtured at its birth "Should rend my heart in death!"