HAEC FABULA DOCET.

A rat who'd gorged a box of bane

And suffered an internal pain,

Came from his hole to die ( the label

Required it if the rat were able )

And found outside his habitat

A limpid stream. Of bane and rat

‘ T was all unconscious; in the sun

It ran and prattled just for fun.

Keen to allay his inward throes,

The beast immersed his filthy nose

And drank — then, bloated by the stream,

And filled with superheated steam,

Exploded with a rascal smell,

Remarking, as his fragments fell

Astonished in the brook: “I'm thinking

This water's damned unwholesome drinking!”