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FABLES.
43
island; one of them made believe he was at home, the other admitted——"
"Oh, I know your kind of fable," said the reader. "They both died."
"And so they did," said the book. "No doubt of that. And everybody else."
"That is true," said the reader. "Push it a little further for this once. And when they were all dead?"
"They were in God's hands the same as before," said the book.
"Not much to boast of, by your account," cried the reader.
"Who is impious now?" said the book.
And the reader put him on the fire.
The coward crouches from the rod,
And loathes the iron face of God.
