THE FROG AND THE HEN.

As once a Frog, Who all day long had chatte from his bog, Began to close His mouth and eyes, and drop into a dose, He chanced just then To hear the sudden cackle of a hen. “What sound is this?” He cried. “Dear madam, what can be amiss, That thus you scream, And keep a quiet neighbour from his dream?” The Hen replied, Her feathers fluttering with maternal pride, “I humbly beg Your pardon, sir; but, having laid an egg, I could not chuse To let you sleep in ignorance of the news.” “What! all this clatter About a single egg!—so small a matter!” “True, neighbour, true; ’Tis but a single egg—a small one, too; But if you blame The rout that I have made about the same, ’Tis doubly wrong In you to croak for nothing all day long. The egg’s of use, And therefore I may brag with some excuse; But the dull brute Tha unproductive should be also mute.”