| |
| ALL praised the Legend more or less; | |
| Some liked the moral, some the verse; | |
| Some thought it better, and some worse | |
| Than other legends of the past; | |
| Until, with ill-concealed distress | 5 |
| At all their cavilling, at last | |
| The Theologian gravely said: | |
| “The Spanish proverb, then, is right; | |
| Consult your friends on what you do, | |
| And one will say that it is white, | 10 |
| And others say that it is red.” | |
| And “Amen!” quoth the Spanish Jew. | |
| |
| “Six stories told! We must have seven, | |
| A cluster like the Pleiades, | |
| And lo! it happens, as with these, | 15 |
| That one is missing from our heaven. | |
| Where is the Landlord? Bring him here; | |
| Let the Lost Pleiad reappear.” | |
| |
| Thus the Sicilian cried, and went | |
| Forthwith to seek his missing star, | 20 |
| But did not find him in the bar, | |
| A place that landlords most frequent, | |
| Nor yet beside the kitchen fire, | |
| Nor up the stairs, nor in the hall; | |
| It was in vain to ask or call, | 25 |
| There were no tidings of the Squire. | |
| |
| So he came back with downcast head, | |
| Exclaiming: “Well, our bashful host | |
| Hath surely given up the ghost. | |
| Another proverb says the dead | 30 |
| Can tell no tales; and that is true. | |
| It follows, then, that one of you | |
| Must tell a story in his stead. | |
| You must,” he to the Student said, | |
| “Who know so many of the best, | 35 |
| And tell them better than the rest.” | |
| |
| Straight, by these flattering words beguiled, | |
| The Student, happy as a child | |
| When he is called a little man, | |
| Assumed the double task imposed, | 40 |
| And without more ado unclosed | |
| His smiling lips, and thus began. | |
| |
