A COCK was once strutting up and down the farmyard among the hens when
suddenly he espied something shining and the straw. "Ho! ho!" quoth
he, "that's for me," and soon rooted it out from beneath the straw.
What did it turn out to be but a Pearl that by some chance had been
lost in the yard? "You may be a treasure," quoth Master Cock, "to men
that prize you, but for me I would rather have a single barley corn
than a peck of pearls."
"PRECIOUS THINGS ARE FOR THOSE THAT CAN PRIZE THEM."
