spare a thought for the dancing marmot

illustration from text - PD

From a book of picture fables translated from German, with illustrations from the original artist, Otto Speckter:  a call for children to think gently and generously of the creatures we bend to our wills.

THE DANCING MARMOT.

"You'll give me a trifle, good people, I'm sure;

I'm very unhappy, and wretched, and poor.

My friends in the corn-field are merry and gay,

While I am here hopping and dancing for pay;

In winter they sleep without danger or dread,

While I must be waking and begging for bread."

"I pity you much, you poor little thing;

I too love to gambol, to dance, and to spring;

But had I to dance at another's behest,

'T would not seem to me like a game or a jest.

For you't was, poor marmot, a sorrowful day,

When cunning men caught you, and took you away."

-- Hey, W. (1858). Picture fables. New York: D. Appleton. p. 39.