ly chewing the cud of reflection.
The cavies and ermines were running a race,
Armadillo was off to a grasshopper chace.
The cat was surprised to see animals roam,
And she purr'd when she thought of her kitten at home.

Report said, a puppy got into a scrape,
By making remarks on the walrus's shape,
On her great staring eyes, and her ugly thick lips,
Her small head, her short neck, and the breadth of her hips;
But he said, "upon honour he meant no offence,"
And she, by forgiving him, shew'd her good sense.
The fox (cunning rogue!) too, complain'd of opossum,
For smuggling her young to the feast in her bosom;
For, as he was peeping and prying about,
"He had seen the young scapegraces get in and out."

The land mouse, the water, and long-tail'd mouse, too,
Tiny field mouse, that turn'd up nose vixen the shrew,
The harvest mouse, fresh from a settler's rick,
Were condemn'd by the great ones as not of their clique;
These reclined round a mole hill, and each dipp'd his paw
In a cocoa-nut bowl fill'd with rice, "en pillau."
And the harvest mouse took most exceeding great pains
To squeak them a stanza in honour of grains.

MOUSE'S SONG.

"An ear of corn, a grain of rice,
Banquet rich for simple mice;
A leaf his bed, a hole his house,
Who could hurt a harmless mouse?

"Grasshopper, so green and gay,
See him as he bounds away!
Without bridle, spur, or stirrup,
Oh! what music in that chirrup!

"Mosquito humming merrily,
Glads us all most cheerily;
Admire his transparent wing,
But as you look, avoid his sting.

CHORUS.

"Squeak! squeak! beware the owl's beak,
Our hearts, like our voices, are so very weak."

THE SUPPER.

"Hark! hark! to the sound now my comrades rejoice,
'Tis the bell-bird who calls us, I know well his voice;
Campanero, who graciously offer'd his song
When the feast was prepared, 'tis his ding-a-dong-dong;"
So exclaim'd a poor turnspit, their cook, who'd been toiling
All day very busily roasting or broiling.
At this moment that spoiler of pic-nics, a shower,
Obliged them to rush to the vine-cover'd bower,
Where in it--oh! joy to the hungry! they found
The repast long expected laid out on the ground.
They had raised to the office of "maitre d'hotel"
The glutton, (and who could perform it so well?)
Who with excellent taste, and an eye to a share,
Ha