I will lock you both in, so that she can't get out.'
Their footsteps descend, but they scarcely had gone
Ere Silverlocks rouses, and feigns a good yawn;
Then looks at Miss Bruin, and says, 'Oh, my dear,
What a beautiful mansion you've got, love, up here!'
Then Miss Bruin approached, just to give her a hug,
But Silverlocks' shoulders arose with a shrug:
'Oh, do not come near me! I'm thinner than weasels,
And you would be certain to sicken with measles.
Oh, save your dear parents and drive me away;
I shall never be happy, I'm sure, from this day,
For I often have heard all our folks at home talk
Of the danger of eating off measly pork.
And should any ill from my visit betide,

I should never forgive myself—not till I died;
And should you now eat me, I plainly can see,
In the state I am in, I must sure disagree.'
'And have you got measles?' the little bear said;
'And you have been lying so long in my bed!
Oh, how shall I 'scape it? Oh, what shall I do?
And my parents, alas! they may p'rhaps catch it too!'
Then Silverlocks sprang with a bound from the bed,
The coverlet tore into many a shred,

Made a rope from the window, and swiftly down slid,
And scampered for home like a one-year-old kid.

The Weakly Chicken.

HUSH-A-BYE, chicky, the worst out of ten,

Thy daddy's a bantam, thy ma's a black hen; Your brothers are crowing, and think they can sing; Your aunt lays an egg for our baked rice-pudding.

DA

Dame Wiggins of Lee.

AME WIGGINS of Lee was a worthy old soul, As e'er threaded a needle or washed in a bowl; Who held mice and rats in such antipathy, That seven fine cats kept Dame Wiggins of Lee.

Now, alas! the Dame died, and I've heard folks relate

How her friends were dispersed, and each met a sad fate :

But if cats won't, alas! to their morals attend,

Of course we expect they will meet some bad end.

The first, turning poacher, was caught in a trap,
By one of the keepers, who gave her a rap;
Then hung her aloft, as a warning to be

To all other game-stirs who came nigh that tree.

The next went to sea- there's a wreck and no meat,
So poor pussy was cooked, and declared quite a treat.
The third it was killed for the sake of its skin,
To cover the muffs the girls put their hands in.

The fourth led a sad and a dissolute life,
And at length was destroyed for ill-treating his wife.
Whilst the fifth o'er the tiles went to take a short cut,
And slid down from a roof and was drowned in a butt.

The next in a street-fight was killed by a dog;

He had supped with a friend, and had drunk too much grog. The last, growing feeble (the Chronicler says),

Was knocked down by a horse and run o'er by the chaise.

So this was the end of the seven fine cats

Dame Wiggins had kept to preserve her from rats.

Oh! how happy they lived with the Dame down at Lee,

And how sad that each death was a cat-as-trophy!

Little Jack Horner.

LITTLE Jack Horner sat in a corner,

Eating a Christmas pie,

He put in his thumb, and pulled out a plum,
And said, 'What a good boy am I!'
Little Jack Horner crept out of his corner,

As soon as he'd finished the pie;

But his mother she spied him and gave him a hiding-
The reason young folks must guess why.

Man and Wife.

HERE was a little man, and he had a little wife,

THE

And she was both the pleasure and the worry of his life;

For she had a little temper, which she very often lost,

Which the poor unlucky fellow found as often to his cost.

The Snail.

L

AZY old snail, come out of your shell;

To slumber at night is all very well:

But now the sun shines, and your face I would see,-

Come, your shutters unclose, or a slug-gard you'll be !

ΤΗ

Upon a summer's day,

As it fell out they all fell in

The rest they ran away.

Now, had these children been at home,

Or sliding on dry ground,

Ten thousand pounds to one penny
They had not all been drowned!

These three little children, as since I've been told,
From their duck in the river all caught a sad cold;
But their toes in hot water, and gruel at night,

And a nice little whipping, soon cured them outright!