12 ANGLING LITERATURE OF 



c< The carpling saw th' impending fate, 

 And strove with all his little prate 



To ward the fatal blow ; 

 Alas ! he cried, in me 

 A puny, scanty thing you see, 

 Not worth a shrimp or grig ; 

 Indeed you'd better let me go, 

 And catch me when I am big. 

 I then may prove a noble fish 



To grace my Lord Mayor's board ; 

 Thus he will have a dainty dish, 

 And you increase your hoard. 

 I am not a mouthful for a child ; 

 A hundred such as I 

 Might on a saucer lie, 

 Unfit for eating, fry'd or boil'd. 

 Why then you shall be broil' d, 

 Our Angler made reply, 

 And that this very night. 

 The fisherman was in the right." 



MORAL. 



" This lesson can never too often be conn'd, 

 One fish in the pan is worth two in the pond." 



Theocritus was a native of Syracuse, and the son of 



* 



Praxagoras and Philinna. He flourished about the year 

 270 B. c. He is represented by classical critics as the 

 founder of Greek bucolic poetry, a branch of literature 

 subsequently imitated with great success by Virgil and 



8 See JSsop's Fables, by Dr. Carai, Paris, 1810. 



