Horace Elisha Scudder

The Dog and the Wolf

A Lean, hungry, half-starved Wolf happening to meet one moonlight night with a plump, well-fed dog, said: "Good morrow to you friend; you look as if you led an easy life of it." "That I do," quoth the Dog: "I have all I can eat and some left over." "That have not I," said the Wolf, "you can count my ribs, I am so lean." "Well, come with me," said the Dog, "and you shall share my supper." As they jogged along the Wolf spied a crease about the Dog’s neck. "Now what may that be?" he asked, curiously. "That? that is where my master puts a collar on me when he chains me to my kennel." "Chains you! then you can’t run free when you will! good-by, my friend, I’d rather have my liberty with hunger, than good living with a chain," and the Wolf went back to the woods.