Horace Elisha Scudder

The Spendthrift and the Swallow

A wild young fellow, who had spent all his father's money, and had only a cloak left upon his back, when he saw a Swallow flying about before it was time said: "Ah, summer has come! I shall not need my cloak any longer; so I will sell it." But afterwards a storm came, and, when it was past, he saw the poor Swallow dead on the ground. "Ah, my friend!" said he, "you are lost yourself, and you have ruined me."

One Swallow does not make a summer.