The Massachusetts spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1821-1823, 1823-01-22
POETRY.
from the National Tntelligencer.l
ROADS AND C.4.N.ALS.
-AsSN@
An AMERICAN FABLE.

AN AMERICAN FABLE.
SOME ages since, (no matter where,1
There was lake--the Lake of Bear;
: (But lazy bsasts, supine and rude,
Industrious beavers soon subdu'd }
And beavers round it built their nest,
Far distant from the ocean west.
Here, pleased to multiply in peace,
They fed upon the fry's increase.
But 10 some centuries, beavers grew
So NUMEROUS, that those fish were few:
Year after year, each beaver-nurse
Found matters growing worse and worse
Twas time for council to devise
To Danish want, where danger lies
For ruminators can foresee
That urgent want is misery:
Plain too to such, this truth appears,
That furnish a ssontaeks haze no ears.
Three leading beavers, far more shrewd
And wiser than the multitude,
Had Travelled from their native dams
Quite to the main, in search of clans
They noted on that lonely coast,
Pike, Sturgeon, Shad, fall many host,
And Of fat Salmon, such sight,
As wet their whiskers with delight.
Instinct, for want of human thought
TO beaver brain invention brought
Inspir'd those brutes to plan dixie
TO lure the pregnant race of pike,
And other fry, where pillows break,
To quit the sea and haunt the lake.
But, when such project they propose,
An hundred brutes turn up their nose,
Receive it with contemptuous sneer,
Exclaim against it far and near
Pronounce canals a foreign scheme,
Wild and romantick as dream.
"Insane (repeat the beaver throng,1
Ct T' attempt to make dixie so long.
g. Ye beaver powers what toll immense
" And what exorbitant expense!
" Our race would perish one by one,
g Long ere SO Elst work was done -
Meanwhile. the chiefs consult and pause,
Still reasning from effect to cause:
Not noisy, nor yet always mute,
(Your beaver is prudent brute }
Oft they cite fac;s from natures book;
Prove profits drawn from many brooks
Hint how gold-fshes circulate
To a small pond from ocean great;
New argument from hunger moot
And, when this topick struck each brute,
All deem'd it better to consent
To dig, than keep perpetual lent:
Vast, more than wisdom, urg'd th' unwise
To undertake the enterprise.
Sage beavers now, who plann'd the ditch,
Urge strong and feeble, poor and rich,
lnfelling trees to mind their points
In scooping soil to stir their joints.
Task-work, to sturdy groups assisn'd,
All try with heart, and soul, and mind,
And tooth and nail, and will and brain,
To bring Besr's Lake to Western Main.
Ohedient to such Engineers,
As buoy their hopes, dispel their fears,
And sooihe sour beavers, always cross
AT future gain from present loss,
United zeal excites such thrill
For opening this extensive rill,
That in two seasons, at the most,
Bear Lake is join'd to Western Coast.
Haddock it soon attracts and Hake,
Sturgeon and Rock supply the Lake
Salmon from sea in swarms proceed,
Shad, Herring, Trout, to spawn and feed
Into Bear Lake most fishes pass,
That fatten on the Euxine grass.
Thus, by the wisdom Of few,
Directing many what TO do,
Beavers, fed fat on sealy throng,
Live happy as the stream is long.
Superiour roads, canals immense,
Well plann'd, and made by.men of sense,
Form region veins and arteries wide,
Cherish home commerce, freedoms pride
From social ligaments refn'd,
Enrich, unite, and bless mankind.