A dog who wished a noonday rest
Observed a manger none possessed,
And soon in pleasant sleep he lay.
Then came an unexpected guest —
An ox in search of hay.
The dog, awakened, rose in wrath,
And barked to block the stranger’s path,
And leapt and snarled and growled; and tried,
As an immediate aftermath,
To nip and rip his hide.
And so he made the ox withdraw
In hunger from the longed-for straw,
Which shows how selfishness and greed
Will rule as by an iron law
And hoard what others need. 
