Fantastic Fables

by Ambrose Bierce


Previous Chapter Next Chapter

The Power of the Scalawag


A FORESTRY Commissioner had just felled a giant tree when, seeing an honest man approaching, he dropped his axe and fled. The next day when he cautiously returned to get his axe, he found the following lines pencilled on the stump:

"What nature reared by centuries of toil, A scalawag in half a day can spoil; An equal fate for him may Heaven provide - Damned in the moment of his tallest pride."

 

Return to the Fantastic Fables Summary Return to the Ambrose Bierce Library

© 2022 AmericanLiterature.com