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