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.

"I wish you'd set fire to my place;
And pray you at once to despatch me,
That none of my enemy's race,
In the form of Miss Kitty, may catch me!"

Disgrace thus will follow on vice,
Although for a while it be hidden;
When children, or kittens, or mice,
Will do what they know is forbidden.

=Jemmy Str