A Goose, affected, empty, vain,   The shrillest of the cackling train,
  With proud and elevated crest,
  Precedence claimed above the rest,
    Says she, "I laugh at human race,
  Who say Geese hobble in their pace;
  Look here—the slander base detect;
  Not haughty man is so erect.
  That Peacock yonder, see how vain
  The creature's of his gaudy train.
  If both were stripped, I'd pledge my word
  A Goose would be the finer bird.
  Nature, to hide her own defects,
  Her bungled work with finery decks.
  Were Geese set off with half that show,
  Would men admire the Peacock? No!"
    Thus vaunting, 'cross the mead she stalks,
  The cackling breed attend her walks;
  The sun shot down his noontide beams,
  The Swans were sporting in the streams.
  Their snowy plumes and stately pride
  Provoked her spleen. "Why, there," she cried,
  "Again, what arrogance we see!
  Those creatures, how they mi............