All praised the Legend more or less; <br />Some liked the moral, some the verse; <br />Some thought it better, and some worse <br />Than other legends of the past; <br />Until, with ill-concealed distress <br />At all their cavilling, at last <br />The Theologian gravely said: <br />'The Spanish proverb, then, is right; <br />Consult your friends on what you do, <br />And one will say that it is white, <br />And others say that it is red.' <br />And 'Amen!' quoth the Spanish Jew. <br /> <br />'Six stories told! We must have seven, <br />A cluster like the Pleiades, <br />And lo! it happens, as with these, <br />That one is missing from our heaven. <br />Where is the Landlord? Bring him here; <br />Let the Lost Pleiad reappear.' <br /> <br />Thus the Sicilian cried, and went <br />Forthwith to seek his missing star, <br />But did not find him in the bar, <br />A place that landlords most frequent, <br />Nor yet beside the kitchen fire, <br />Nor up the stairs, nor in the hall; <br />It was in vain to ask or call, <br />There were no tidings of the Squire. <br /> <br />So he came back with downcast head, <br />Exclaiming: 'Well, our bashful host <br />Hath surely given up the ghost. <br />Another proverb says the dead <br />Can tell no tales; and that is true. <br />It follows, then, that one of you <br />Must tell a story in his stead. <br />You must,' he to the Student said, <br />'Who know so many of the best, <br />And tell them better than the rest.' <br /> <br />Straight by these flattering words beguiled, <br />The Student, happy as a child <br />When he is called a little man, <br />Assumed the double task imposed, <br />And without more ado unclosed <br />His smiling lips, and thus began.<br /><br />Henry Wadsworth Longfellow<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/tales-of-a-wayside-inn-part-2-interlude-vi/
