While Mouse glided under a dish.
Escaping the mortal disaster,
Miss Kitty turned off to a fish,
The breakfast elect for her master.
Said she to herself, "Tis clear gain,--
This rarity, fresh from the water,
Will save my white mittens the stain--
And me from the trouble of slaughter!"
But her racket, she found to her cost,
The plot had most fatally thickened;
And all hope of mercy was lost,
As Jack's coming footstep was quickened.
He seized her, and binding her fast.
Declared he could never forgive her;
So Kitty was sentenced and cast,
With a stone at her neck, in the river!
But Mouse still continued to thieve;
And often, alone in her dwelling,
Would silently laugh in her sleeve,
At the scene in the tale I've been telling--
Till once, by a fatal mishap,
The little unfortunate rover
Perceived herself close in a trap,
And felt that her race was now over.
She knew she must leave all behind;
And thus, in the midst of her terrors,
As every thing rushed to her mind,
Began her confession of errors:--
"You'll find, on the word of a Mouse,
Whom hope has for ever forsaken,
The following things in my house,
Which I have unlawfully taken:
"A cork, that was soaked in the beer,
Which I nibbled until I was merry;
Some kernels of corn from the ear,
The skin and the stone of a cherry:--
"Some hemp-seed I took from the bird,
And found most deliriously tasted,
While safe in my covert, I heard
Its owner complain that 'twas wasted:--
"You'll find a few cucumber seeds,
Which I thought, if they could but be hollowed,
Would answer to string out for beads;
So the inside of all I have swallowed:--
"A few crumbs of biscuit and cheese,
Which I thought might a long time supply me
With luncheon--some rice and split peas,
Which seemed well prepared to keep by me:--
"A cluster of curls which I stole
At night from a young lady's toilet,
And made me a bed of it whole,
As tearing it open would spoil it;--
"And as, in a long summer day
I'd time both or reading and spelling,
I gnawed up the whole of a play,
And carried it home to my dwelling.
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