1 A Cock was Strutting up and down the farmyard among the hens
2 when suddenly he espied some thing shining amid the stray
3 Ho! Ho! quoth he, that ‘s for me
4 and soon rooted it out from beneath the straw
5 What did it turn out to be but a gem stone that
6 by some chance had been lost in the yard?
7 You may be a treasure”quoth the Cock, to men that prize you
8 but for me I would rather have a single rice-corn
9 than a peck of gem stones