anger and strife,
Though he never had tasted her milk in his life.
On the faith of a hedgehog he dared to affirm,
That he seldom found courage to injure a worm.
Mrs. Cow was astonish'd; she never had heard
A report more untrue, a belief so absurd.
She urged that his mouth was too little by half
To steal the sweet milk that she meant for Miss Calf;
And concluded by saying, "'Tis surely enough
To mention (excuse me) your coat is so rough,
If even supposing that you should not fear me,
I never could suffer your skin to come near me."

An old porcupine, too, just begg'd leave to observe,
That reports had been spread which he did not deserve;
To say he was "fretful," was using him ill,
He would prove the reverse to his very last quill;
Though he now bristled up at the simple idea,
This was often, with him, but a symptom of fear.
As he spoke, a poor toad, who had sate quite aloof
In a hovel of earth, with a stone for a roof,
Now slowly, on tiptoe, crept out of his hole,
And into the midst of the company stole;
The quadrupeds gazed as the reptile drew nigh,
Half afraid of his looks, though they could not tell why.
Mouse's hair stood on end, and, still stranger to say,
Miss Chameleon changed colour, and fainted away.
Poor bufo confess'd, as he sate in the dark,
He had listen'd to porcupine's brilliant remark,
And had thought it was due to himself and posterity,
T' expose a new case of the poets' temerity.
The poets, who kindly, but falsely, had said,
That he carried a beautiful gem in his head;
A jewel he thought would be quite out of place,
With his rustic brown coat, and his sallow green face,
And he knew not how people could think it was true,
Unless they had seen him when spangled with dew.
His Surinam friend could they possibly mean,
Who carried her little ones set in her skin.
Those alone were the jewels his friend ever wore,
Like Cornelia's, the good Roman matron of yore.
Having stated the case with regard to attire,
He said, with some warmth, that he did not spit fire:
And he ask'd why the wise ones omitted to hint
Where he carried his tinder, his steel, and his flint:
That his time was more usefully spent, he might say,
In chasing the vagrants and spectres away.
Every member of reptile society knew
That of insects and grubs he destroy'd not a few:
His wife had just miss'd a huge pioneer spider,
Who fled to h