When on the hunt for grain;

     Our hero scratch'd the litter o'er

     With all his might and main.

     But scarce a minute had he scratch'd,

     When, to his great surprise,

     A gem, with golden chain attach'd,

     He saw with both his eyes.

     "Alack!" quoth he, "what have we here?

     A diamond, I protest!

     Which lords and ladies buy so dear,

     And hold in such request.

     "But one good barley-corn to me

     Has more intrinsic worth

     Than all the pearls now in the sea,

     Or gold now in the earth."

     The moral here, in Esop's mind,

     Was this, there's not a doubt:

     Things have

      most

     value, which we find

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