Till gentler puss shall come.

He, still more aged, feels the shocks
From which no care can save;
And partner once of Tiney's box,
Must soon partake his grave.

William Cowper

Punch's Appeal for the Hunted Hare

All on the bare and bleak hillside,
One night this merry Christmastide,
A shivering hunted hare did hide;
Poor Pussy!

Though we had hunted puss all day,
The wind had blown her scent away,
And balked the dogs, so there she lay,
Poor Pussy!

There to the earth she humbly crept,
There brooding o'er her lot she wept,
There, on her empty stomach she slept.
Poor Pussy!

And there, while frozen fell the dew,
She dreamt an ugly dream or two,
As starved, wet folk are apt to do,
Did Pussy!

Loud hungry hounds of subtle ken,
And thundering steeds, and hard-eyed men,
Are fast on Pussy's trail again,
Poor Pussy!

Onwards she strains, on, as they tear
Foremost amongst the foremost there,
Are ruthless women's faces fair;
Poor Pussy!

One moment's check, to left, to right,
In vain she spends her little might,
Some yokel's eyes have marked her flight,
Poor Pussy!

What use her fine small wits to rack!
Closer, and faster on her track
Hurries the hydra-headed pack,
Lost Pussy!

"For pity's sake, kind huntsman, stop!
Call off the dogs before I drop,
And kill me with your heavy crop."
Shrieks Pussy!

With shuddering start and stifled scream,
She wakes!--She finds it all a dream;
How kind the cold, cold earth doth seem
To Pussy!

[Illustration: The Hare and the Tortoise.]

[Page 180--Rat Land]

[Illustration: A Gentleman Rat.]

The Pied Piper of Hamelin
--or--
The Vanished Children

Hamelin Town's in Brunswick
By famous Hanover city;
The river Weser, deep and wide,
Washes its wall on the southern side.
A pleasanter spot you never spied;
But, when begins my ditty,
Almost five hundred years ago,
To see the townsfolk suffer so
From vermin was a pity.

Rats!
They fought the dogs and killed the cats,
And bit the babies in the cradles,
And ate the cheeses out of the vats,
And licked the soup from the cook's own ladles,