Lazy sheep, pray tell me why

  In the pleasant fields you lie,

  Eating grass, and daisies white,

  From the morning till the night?

(5)  Everything can something do,

  But what kind of use are;

  Nay, my little master, nay,

  Do not serve me so, I pray;

  you see the wool that grows

(10) On my back, to make you clothes?

  Cold, and very cold, you be

  If you had not wool from me.

  True, it seems a pleasant thing,

  To nip the daisies in the spring;

(15) But many chilly nights I pass

  On the cold and dewy grass,

  Or pick a scanty dinner, where

  All the common;s brown and bare.

  Then the farmer comes at last,

(20) When the merry spring is past,

  And cuts my woolly coat away,

  To warm you in the winter; day:

  Little master, this is why.

  In the pleasant fields I lie.