The Shepherd Turned Merchant

Fair weather sailors, keep at home,

For be assur’d the storm will come.

A shepherd of an inland breed

Brought to the coast his flocks to feed;

The beauty of a summer sea,

A merchant tempted him to be.

He sold his sheep, and with the sale

Purchas’d of dates an ample bale.

He sail’d; a furious tempest rose;

Into the sea his dates he throws;

And swimming from the bark to land,

Arrives half dead upon the strand.

To one, soon afterwards who stood

Pleas’d with the calmness of the flood,

“Aye, aye,” the simple shepherd said

“With dates again it would be fed.”