Two striplings once upon a time,
Between themselves agreed to climb
Old Etna : they perchance might see
Something of life's great mystery,
Through the smoke or through the fires
That Tartarean throat respires.
Forthwith they fixed with leathern thong
Their brazen sandals high and strong,
And bent their knees to the ascent
A league or two, when overspent
And breathless, one of the twain cried out
*' Comrade, hold 1 Fm not so stout
As thus to urge for long ; Til call



128 A FABLB.
The sun to stay awhile his fall,

And give us time to rest us here ! "

So with a self-complacent peer

Down the slope, he stretched himself

Like one who would have given his pelf

And purse at once, for one full cup,

And have said to himself, I may drink it up,

I deserve it all, I have done enough,

Labour without a good fee's all stuff 1

The other adventurer looked up still,

Scanning and measuring all the hill,

Lost he seem'd in expectation.
Living on hope's immaterial ration,

But now, while nursing his left foot

As if it were sick, cried the first, " Let's put

A great stone here to mark the spot

Before we start again ; why not ? "

His comrade half indignant rose

And clipt a snail by its shrinking nose

Between his finger and his thumb,

And with a grand flourish derisive and dumb,



A FABLE. 129

Placed it for the monument,

Then set himself to the ascent.
So now again they mount, somewhile

Abreast they strive, unheeding toil ;

Wading scorea, vaulting creeks

Where the sluggish lava reeks.
