A dog looking for food stuck his head in a pitcher and got stuck. Even after breaking the bottom he still had to live with the rim.
Jefferys Taylor
(A true Story.)
A HUNGRY dog, (as ’tis supposed,)
Whose form was spare and thin,
Perceived a dairy door unclosed,
And straightway enter’d in.
Then round-about he turn’d his eyes
On butter, milk, and cheese,
Thought he, “I fear ’twill not be wise
To take too much of these.
“The milk, in pans so broad and wide,
If lapp’d, will clearly show it;
But this deep pitcher may be tried,
And they can scarcely know it.”
With this he thrust his nose within,
And, though the neck was small,
By pushing hard, the prize to win,
He got in ears and all.
“O! now there’s room enough,” thought he,
“For here the size is double;
And here is milk enough, I see,
To pay me for my trouble.”
The dog he lapp’d till all was gone,
Then raised his head to go;
But found the jug hung firmly on,
To his dismay and woe.
Vainly he tugg’d, and backwards ran;
The pitcher ran as fast;
When almost choked, the dog began
To be enraged at last.
With desperate blows did he assail
Each door-post as he fled;
He that oft’ briskly wagg’d his tail,
Now briskly wagg’d his head.
But soon the dairy-maid drew near,
Who, with loud exclamations,
Laid a good broomstick on, ’tis clear,
To aid his operations.
At last, he broke the bottom out
Of this disastrous jug;
But still the dog was not without
The remnant of the mug.
With this, the trophy of the day,
In haste forth trotted he;
And, if ’twas ever knock’d away,
They have not told it me.
So thieves, though cunning they may be,
Oft’ find themselves detected
(As was the dog, we plainly see,)
In ways they least expected.