Public-domain source text

Haec Fabula Docet

by Ambrose Bierce

From Standard Ebooks · standardebooks/ambrose-bierce_poetry

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 ’Twas 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!”

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This is a source transcription from Standard Ebooks, published in Past Poetry’s public-domain archive without line-by-line editorial notes. Public-domain source edition. Availability can vary by territory.

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