Ce)

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 !

Ne OX 6G Wom?