_Oxen_ and a Piece of _Timber_.
The _Timber_ was Complaining of the Ingratitude of the _Oxen_. How often,
says the _Timber_, have I fed ye with my Leaves, and reliev’d ye under my
Shadow? and for You to Drag me now at this rate, over Dirt and Stones!
Alas! cry’d the _Oxen_: Do not you see how we Pant and Groan, and how we
are Goaded on, to do what we Do? The _Timber_ Consider’d how unwillingly
they did it, and so Forgave them.
The MORAL.
_What we are forc’d to do by an Over-Ruling Power and Necessity, is not
properly our own Act._