d not to view the scene,
But lent a willing ear
To idle gossip, and were clean
Distraught with foolish fear.

They who to Wisdom's calm delight
And Virtue's heights attain,
Though ill example should invite,
Such panic fear disdain.

These three stanzas were inspired by Perfect Wisdom.

THE BEE, THE HARP, THE MOUSE, AND THE BUM-CLOCK

Once there was a widow, and she had one son, called Jack. Jack and his
mother owned just three cows. They lived well and happy for a long time;
but at last hard times came down on them, and the crops failed, and poverty
looked in at the door, and things got so sore against the poor widow that
for want of money and for want of necessities she had to make up her mind
to sell one of the cows. "Jack," she said one night, "go over in the
morning to the fair to sell the branny cow."

Well and good: in the morning my brave Jack was up early, and took a stick
in his fist and turned out the cow, and off to the fair he went with her;
and when Jack came into the fair, he saw a great crowd gathered in a ring
in the street. He went into the crowd to see what they were looking at, and
there in the middle of them he saw a man with a wee, wee Harp, a Mouse, and
a Bum-clock (Cockroach), and a Bee to play the harp. And when the man put
them down on the ground and whistled, the Bee began to play the Harp, and
the Mouse and the Bum-clock stood up on their hind legs and got hold of
each other and began to waltz. And as soon as the Harp began to play and
the Mouse and the Bum-clock to dance, there wasn't a man or woman, or a
thing in the fair, that didn't begin to dance also; and the pots and pans,
and the wheels and reels jumped and jigged, all over the town, and Jack
himself and the branny cow were as bad as the next.

There was never a town in such a state before or since, and after a while
the man picked up the Bee, the Harp, and the Mouse, and the Bum-clock and
put them into his pocket, and the men and women, Jack and the cow, the pots
and pans, wheels and reels, that had hopped and jigged, now stopped, and
everyone began to laugh as if to break its heart. Then the man turned to
Jack. "Jack," says he, "how would you like to be master of all these
animals?"

"Why," says Jack, "I should like it fine."

"Well, then," says the man, "how will you and me make a bargain about
them?"

"I have no money," says Jack.

"But you have a fine cow," says the man. "I