88 FAVOURITE FABLES.

“Say, good sir, is it fit or right,
To treat me with neglect and slight?
Me, who contribute to your cheer,
And raise your mirth with ale and beer!
Why thus insulted, thus disgraced,
And that vile Dunghill near me placed ?
Are those poor sweepings of a groom,
That filthy sight, that nauseous fume,
Meet objects here? Command it hence:
A thing so mean must give offence.”’

The humble Dunghill thus replied:
‘Thy master hears, and mocks thy pride.
Insult not thus the meek and low;

In me thy benefactor know:

My warm assistance gave thee birth,
Or thou hadst perished low in earth:
But upstarts, to support their station,
Cancel at once all obligation.”’

—0-—-,
FABLE LXV.
THE SHEEP-BITER AND SHEPHERD.

A certarn Shepherd had a Dog, upon whose fidelity he
relied very much; for whenever he had occasion to be absent