FOR CHILDREN. 17

And with many and many a desperate tug,
To hoist him up began.

And step by step, and step by step,
He went with heavy tread ;

But ere he reached the garret door,
Poor Bluebottle was dead !

Now all this while, a magistrate,
Who lived in a house hard by,!
Had watched Web-Spinner's cruelty

Through a window privily :

So in he bursts, through bolts and bars,
With a loud and thundering sound,

And vowed to burn the house with fire,
And level it with the ground ;

But the wicked churl, who all his life
Had looked for such a day,

Passed through a trap-door in the wall,
And took himself away.

But where he went, no man could tell ;
Twas said that under ground

He died a miserable death—
But his body ne’er was found,

They pulled his house down, stick and stone,
* For a caitiff* vile as he,”

Said they, “ within our quiet town
Shall not a dweller be !”

Mary Howitt.

1 Hard hy—vear at hand.
? Caitiff—villain, base fellow.
02