Alice advises him to send his Cat.

Now on the Thames a gallant ship lay ready to set sail,

When spoke the Merchant, “Ho! prepare to catch the fav'ring gale ;
And each who will his fortune try, haste, get your goods on board,
The gains ye all shall share with me, whate’er they may afford:
From distant lands where precious musks and jewels rare are found,
What joy to waft across the seas their spoils to English ground !”
So hasted then each one on board, with what he best could find,
Before the ship for Afric’s land flew swiftly with the wind.

The little boy he was so poor, no goods had he to try,

And as he stood and saw the ship, a tear bedimm’d his eye,

To think how Fortune smiled on all oe on his sad lot—

As if he were by gracious Heaven neglected and forgot !

The Merchant and his daughter too, fair Alice, mark’d his grief,
And with a gentle woman's heart, intent on kind relief,

She bade him bring his Cat to try her fortune o’er the sea;

“Who knows,’ she said, “what she may catch in gratitude to thee!”
With weeping and with sore lament he brought poor Puss on board -

And now the ship stood out for sea, with England’s produce stored.

2