I don't know it
yet--not quite."

"No?" said Mr. Lacy. "Then I shall have to tell you something myself, I
declare. Here, sit down beside me, and listen very attentively."

Now, what do you think the minister told them? "Some dreadful, dismal
story, full of dreadful, wicked children, who were sent to prison, I
suppose; or an account of how, if _they_ ever dared to run down stairs,
or look out of the window, or sneeze in church, on Sundays, they never
would get to Heaven!" perhaps you will say. Not a bit of it. He just
trotted Luly up and down on his knee, and told them these funny verses:

"Three little kittens from home ran away,
Oh dear! oh dear!
And did you not hear
All that befell them on that day?
Dilly, and Dolly, and Poppledy-polly--
Did you ever hear, in your life, of such folly!

"Out they ran from their mother's door,
And skipped, and tripped,
And danced, and dipped,
Way down the road, where they'd ne'er been before!
Dilly, and Dolly, and Poppledy-polly,
Oh deary! what _will_ be the end of their folly?

"'Come let us go into this barn for mice!'
'Oh don't!' 'Oh stuff!
I'm hungry enough
To eat anything that is sav'ry and nice!'
So quoth little Dolly and Poppledy-polly,
While Dilly looked on, quite aghast at their folly!

"So in it they went, quite full of their fun,
And stared, and glared,
And meauoed, and scared
The poor little mice till they made them all run!
Dilly, and Dolly, and Poppledy-polly;
For Dilly, I'm sorry to say, shared their folly.

"But, alas! while the kittens were hunting up mice,
And munching, and crunching
Their smoking-hot _lunching_,
A boy came and caught them all up in a trice!
Dilly, and Dolly, and Poppledy-polly;
_Oh!_ OH! OH! what a shocking cli_max_ to their folly!

"Oh, how they struggled and mewed in their fright!
And scratched, and snatched
At the dismal old patched
Bag they were thrust into, twisted up tight!
Dilly, and Dolly, and Poppledy-polly;
I warrant, they felt bad enough for their folly.

"Soon to a stranger house they came;
'Oh, ma'! oh, ma'!
Now, only see _thar_!'
Their captor cried out to an elderly dame;
While Dilly, and Dolly, and Poppledy-polly
Pricked up their ears, and lamented their folly.