C.D. Warner, et al., comp. The Library of the World’s Best Literature.
An Anthology in Thirty Volumes. 1917.

Entertainment

Translation of Charles Timothy Brooks

I STOPPED at an inn one day to dine:

The host was a generous fellow;

A golden apple, for a sign,

Hung out on a branch, so mellow.

It was the good old apple-tree

Himself so nobly dined me;

Sweet fare and sparkling juices he

Was pleased and proud to find me.

To his green-house came many a guest,

Light-wingèd and light-hearted;

They sang their best, they ate his best,

Then up they sprang and departed.

I found a bed to rest my head—

A bed of soft green clover;

The host a great cool shadow spread

For a quilt, and covered me over.

I asked him what I had to pay:

I saw his head shake slightly;—

Oh, blest be he, for ever and aye,

Who treated me so politely.