54 SELECT POETRY

Forth from his head his forked tongue he throws,

Darting it full against a kitten’s nose !

Who, never having seen in field or house

The like, sat still and silent as a mouse ;

Only projecting, with attention due,

Her whiskered face, she asked him, “ Who are you?”

On to the hall went I, with pace not slow

But swift as lightning, for a long Dutch hoe;

With which, well armed, I hastened to the spot

To find the viper ;—but I found him not;

And turning up the leaves and shrubs around,

Found only—that he was not to be found.

But still the kittens sitting as before,

Were watching close the bottom of the door.

* I hope,” said I, “ the villian 1 would kill

Has slipped between the door and the door-sill ;

And if I make despatch, and follow hard

No doubt but I shall find him in the yard.”

(For long ere now it should have been rehearsed,

*Twas in the garden that I found him first.)

Ev’n there I found him, there the full-grown cat

His head, with velvet paw, did gently pat;

As curious as the kittens erst! had been

To learn what this phenomenon? might mean.

Filled with heroic ardour at the sight,

And fearing every moment he would bite,

And rob our household of the only cat

That was of age to combat with a rat,

With outstretched hoe I slew him at the door,

And taught him never TO COME THERE NO MORE!
Cowper.

1 Erst—before, formerly. ? Phenomenon—an appearance,
n remarkable appearance—the plural is phenomena.