ONE day a Mouse , hot and thirsty,
       Just from a weasel's jaws escaped,
Crept to the edge of the pond to
Cool his muzzle in the water.
     There from a lily-pad Puff-jaw spied
Him and called in such words as these:
"Stranger, who are you? By what right
Do you take water from the Frogs' pond?"
     To which the Mouse, his strength still spent,
Remembering the weasel and
Uncertain of the Frog, replied:
     "Crum-snatcher is my name, son of
Cake-eater, the stout-hearted, and Quern-licker,
Daughter of Ham-gnawer, the King.
In the mouse-hole she bore me and
There nourished me with figs and nuts.
I drink now to slake my thirst as
All creatures must. Nature's law it is,
And Nature the pond provided."