The Old Man and his Sons

29. THE OLD MAN AND HIS SONS
An old man's sons always quarreled together,
About their work, their clothes, the wind or the weather;
He had tried much, in fact hard and quite often,
To cause the anger of these sons to soften,
But failed to improve them and worked all in vain:
As soon as pleased they got angry again.
One morning the old man called his sons 'round,
And showed them a bundle of sticks which he'd bound,
Then asked each of his sons a bundle to take
And see if the sticks he could possibly break.
They all tried, yet 'twas vain. Then each of them said:
"That bundle of sticks must be iron or lead."
The father the cord from the bunch then unwound,
And let each stick singly fall to the ground.
"Now my sons," said their father, "each take a stick,
And see if to break it is such a hard trick."
Very soon all the sticks were broken in two;
Which of course, since untied, it was easy to do.
Said the man then, "My sons, by this understand
How hard 'tis to harm those who join hand in hand."
The hardships of life you can easily weather,
If you stop quarreling, and all pull together.
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