Said the first old woman, “This ugly goat
    Should never thus run at loose.” 
Said the second, “I wish they’d cut the throat
    Of that noisy cackling goose.” 
  And so it happened when e’er that they
  Would meet each other upon the way
  They’d bicker and hicker the livelong day
    In the key of a scolding note.

But all the neighbours, great and small,
  Complained of both with grievous tone. 
From which I gather that we all
  See other’s faults and not our own.

H. PYLE

[Illustration:  OVERCONFIDENCE.  This illustrated poem shows the people gazing upon the peacock, and later running away covering their ears.]

OVERCONFIDENCE

A peacock sat on ye garden wall
(See picture here to ye right),
An ye folk came crowding-great and small
For it chanced that none in ye town at all
    Had ever seen such a sight
If you’d have been there perhaps you’d have heard
Ye folk talk thus, as they looked at ye bird: 

      “O crickety!—­Law!—­
       O jimmeny me!—­
       I never yet saw!—­
       Who ever did see
Such a beautiful sight in the world before,
Since ye animals marched from ye old ark door? 
       O!  Look at ye spots
       In his tail!  And ye lots
Of green and of blue in his beautiful wings! 
I’d give a new shilling to know if he sings!”

Ye peacock says, “Surely, they’ll greatly rejoice
To hear but a touch of my delicate voice.”
                                  (Sings.)

“O dear!  O dear!—­
O stop it!—­O do!—­
We never did hear
Such a hullballoo! 
’Tis worse than ye noise that ye carpenters make
When they sharpen their saws!—­Now, for charity’s sake,
Give over this squalling,
And catermawalling!”
Cried all ye good people who chanced to be near;
Each thrusting a finger-tip into each ear.

  You see ye poor dunce had attempted to shine
  In a way that was out of his natural line.

H. Pyle.

[Illustration:  THE FORCE OF NEED. This page has the poem on one side, with the lady gazing up into the tree with the robin, and the lady warm in a house and robin outside in the snow at the bottom of the page.]

THE FORCE OF NEED

“Hey, Robin! ho, Robin! 
  Singing on the tree,
I will give you white bread,
  If you will come to me.”

“Oh! the little breeze is singing
  To the nodding dairies white,
And the tender grass is springing,
  And the sun is warm and bright;
And my little mate is waiting
  In the budding hedge for me;
So, on the whole, I’ll not accept
  Your kindly courtesy.”

“Hey, Robin! ho, Robin! 
  Now the north winds blow
Wherefore do you come here,
  In the ice and snow?”