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IT was once on a time people said a hyæna
Lived close by the village and had a snug lair;
They were sure ’twas a real one, young Lumpkin had seen her,
With a head like a wolf and a tail like a bear.
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Old Gaffer moreover, who used to sit quaffing,
One night heard a scuffle and found a goose dead;
And dame Slipperslopper had often heard laughing,
While folks were, or ought to have been, all abed.
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So with common consent they determined to stop her,
For hyænas they said were a mischievous race:
So Gaffer and Lumpkin and Dame Slipperslopper
Sallied forth one fine morning all girt for the chase.
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They soon reach’d the hole where they reckon’d to find her,
And all took their posts as they gather’d round close;
And the Dame she peep’d in, though no mole could be blinder,
As she settled her spectacles over her nose.
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But just at that moment our old friend the fox,
(For no more and no less was Young Lumpkin’s Hyæna)
Was starting to visit old Gaffer’s fat cocks,
And he brush’d past her face just as if he’d not seen her.
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She started—her glasses fell into the hole;
And backward she tumbled and shriek’d like a child.
Young Lumpkin stood silent and look’d like a fool;
Old Gaffer ran homeward, as if he was wild.
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But before he got home he had lost a fine chicken,
And Dame Slipperslopper came back in chagrin:
But the Fox grinn’d with joy while his chops he sat licking,
And put on the glasses, to pick the bones clean.
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Moral. |
When a fool prates of wonders—a ghost or a dragon,
Believe not his story, albeit he may swear;
For be sure, that as usual the world will still wag on,
And never a dragon nor ghost will be there.
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