The End Of It

A whole-tail dog, and a half-tail dog, And a dog without a tail, Went all three out on an autumn day To follow a red-fox trail.

But the dogs that carried their tails along Fell out, it is said, by the way; And the loss of a tail and a half at the end Of the dogs put an end to the fray.

When each, as a morsel sweet, gulped down What had late been a neighbor's pride, "You've kept your tails," laughed the no-tail dog, "But you wear them now inside."