Fashions and modes we often see,
Made to conceal deformity:
Those to whom nature has been kind,
Should leave such fopperies behind.
A fox who in a trap was taken,
Resign'd his brush to save his bacon.
Ashamed that all the world should know
His cunning had been cheated so,
To an assembly of the nation
He made the following oration:
"I oft have thought the tails we wear
A troublesome appendage are;
Where's their utility, I pray?
They serve but to obstruct our way.
Nor ornamental do I find,
To drag this ponderous length behind.
For my part, without more debate,
I move our tails we amputate."
"Please, sir, to show yourself behind,"
(Says one to smoke the jest inclin'd,
And who discovered what it was)
"We there perhaps shall see the cause,
Ere we your prudent counsel take,
Why you this curious motion make?"
His bare posteriors when they found,
Loud laughter shook the benches round;
Nor could the fox without a tail
To introduce the mode prevail.
[Illustration]