THE THREE BEGGARS
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'Though to my feathers in the wet,__I have stood here from break of day,__I have not found a thing to eat__For only rubbish comes my way.__Am I to live on lebeen-lone?'__Muttered the old crane of Gort.__'For all my pains on lebeen-lone.'_ King Guari walked amid his courtThe palace-yard and river-sideAnd there to three old beggars said:'You that have wandered far and wideCan ravel out what's in my head.Do men who least desire get most,Or get the most who most desire?'A beggar said: 'They get the mostWhom man or devil cannot tire,And what could make their muscles tautUnless desire had made them so.'But Guari laughed with secret thought,'If that be true as it seems true,One of you three is a rich man,For he shall have a thousand poundsWho is first asleep, if but he canSleep before the third noon sounds.'And thereon merry as a bird,With his old thoughts King Guari wentFrom river-side and palace-yardAnd left them to their argument.'And if I win,' one beggar said,'Though I am old I shall persuadeA pretty girl to share my bed';The second: 'I shall learn a trade';The third: 'I'll hurry to the courseAmong the other gentlemen,And lay it all upon a horse';The second: 'I have thought again:A farmer has more dignity.'One to another sighed and cried:The exorbitant dreams of beggary,That idleness had borne to pride,Sang through their teeth from noon to noon;And when the second twilight broughtThe frenzy of the beggars' moonThey closed their blood-shot eyes for naught.One beggar cried: 'You're shamming sleep.'And thereupon their anger grewTill they were whirling in a heap. They'd mauled and bitten the night throughOr sat upon their heels to rail,And when old Guari came and stoodBefore the three to end this tale,They were commingling lice and blood.'Time's up,' he cried, and all the threeWith blood-shot eyes upon him stared.'Time's up,' he cried, and all the threeFell down upon the dust and snored. _'Maybe I shall be lucky yet,__Now they are silent,' said the crane.__'Though to my feathers in the wet__I've stood as I were made of stone__And seen the rubbish run about,__It's certain there are trout somewhere__And maybe I shall take a trout__If but I do not seem to care.'_
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