Stranica 181 [181]
PEs LORY OR -COOuURRICO
shout, ““Cock-a-doodle-doo!”’ only to enrage the saint and
disobey his mother.
He had not yet ended his song when one of the pope’s
guard, who chanced to hear him, laid hands on the insolent
wretch who dared thus to insult the saint, and carried him
home in order to roast him for supper.
“Quick!” said he to his wife on entering the house, "give
me some boiling water; here is a sinner to be punished.”’
“Pardon, pardon, Madame Water!” cried Coquerico.
“Oh, good and gentle water, the best and purest thing in
the world, do not scald me, I pray you!"
" Did you have pity on me when I implored your aid,
ungrateful wretch?" answered the water, boiling with
indignation. And with a single gush it inundated him
irom head to foot, and left not a bit of down on his body.
The unhappy Coquerico stripped of all his feathers, the
soldier took him and laid him on the gridiron.
“Oh, fire, do not burn me!" cried he, in an agony of
terror. “Oh, beautiful and brilliant fire, the brother of
the sun and the cousin of the diamond, spare an unhappy
creature; restrain thy ardor, and soften thy flame; do not
roast me!"
‘Did you have pity on me when I implored your aid,
ungrateful wretch?” answered the fire, and, fiercely blazing
with anger, In an instant it burnt Coquerico to a coal.
The soldier, seeing his roast chicken in this deplorable
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