," says she, "I grant, your years
Have reached beyond a mother's cares;
I see you vigorous, strong, and bold;
I hear, with joy, your triumphs told.
'Tis not from Cocks thy fate I dread;
But let thy ever-wary tread
Avoid yon well; that fatal place
Is sure perdition to our race.
Print this, my counsel, on thy breast;
To the just gods I leave the rest."

He thanked her care; yet, day by day,
His bosom burned to disobey;
And every time the well he saw,
Scorned, in his heart, the foolish law;
Near and more near each day he drew,
And longed to try the dangerous view.

"Why was this idle charge?" he cries;
"Let courage female fears despise!
Or did she doubt my heart was brave,
And, therefore, this injunction gave?
Or does her harvest store the place,
A treasure for her younger race?
And would she thus my search prevent?--
I stand resolved, and dare th' event."

Thus said, he mounts the margin's round,
And pries into the depth profound.
He stretched his neck; and, from below,
With stretching neck advanced a foe:
With wrath his ruffled plumes he tears;
The foe with ruffled plumes appears:
Threat answered threat, his fury grew;
Headlong to meet the war he flew;
But when the watery death he found,
He thus lamented as he drowned:
"I ne'er had been in this condition,
Had I obeyed the prohibition."

MORAL.

Obey your parents, or 'twill be your fate,
To feel repentance when it comes too late.

FABLE LXXXI.

MERCURY AND THE WOODMAN.

A MAN was felling a tree on the bank of a river, and by chance
let his hatchet slip out of his hand, which dropped into the
water, and immediately sunk to the bottom. Being, therefore, in
great distress from the loss of his tool, he sat down and
bemoaned himself most lamentably.

Upon this, Mercury appeared to him, and being informed of the
cause of his complaint, dived to the bottom of the river, and,
coming up again, showed the man a golden hatchet, demanding if
that were his. He denied that it was; upon which Mercury dived a
second time, and brought up a silver one. The Man refused it,
alleging likewise that this was not his. He dived a third time,
and fetched up the individual hatchet the man had lost; upon
sight of which the poor fellow was overjoyed, and took it with
all humility and thankfulness. Mercury was so p