tale of two tails

《the big old dog and the little yapper dog》

As chance would have it and lore would remember it, there once were two mates: the little yapper dog and the big old dog.

The big old dog laid steadily on the still ground, while the little yapper dog would yap and run in little circles about the big old dog.

The big old dog would get up, and mozy to and fro', moving freely as big old dogs do.

And the little yapper dog would follow close behind and all around, yapping as little yapper dogs are apt to do.

It was for each step the big old dog would take, that the little yapper dog took 4.

And though the little yapper dog had energy for more, those equal steps of 4 too soon trod once too many times about that big old dog, though what for...?

So after time itself drew weary, the little yapper dog took heed and halted the yapping and paused the treading, too.

For where a big old dog minds what only a big old dog might will to mind, any dog will know that there is fourfold more than a passive big old bore who cares for nobody more.

And the little yapper dog went silently and simply on away, for the little yapper dog was, in fact, no more a yapper than the big old dog was old.

At long last, the little dog was no more, and no less, than the dog that it was, which was a dog that is.

The End

Though there are things great and grand and worthy of tempting even the strongest, there are times of purpose that we must swim on and away.

即使大虫并不诱惑
(Even the big worm does not tempt)

by 云清, aka Jessica Bibbee