PAULINE AND THE MATCHES.

You will be burnt if you do so,
Your mother has forbid you know.”

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Now see! oh! see, a dreadful thing!
The fire has caught her apron-string!
Her apron burns, her arms, her hair;
She burns all over, everywhere.
Then how the pussy-cats did mew.
What else, poor pussies, could they do?
They screamed for help, ’twas all in vain,
So then they said, “ We'll scream again;
Make haste, make haste! me-ow, me-oh!
She'll burn to death—we told her 5One :
So she was burnt with all her clothes
And arms, and hands, and eyes, and nose;
Till she had nothing more to lose,
Except her little scarlet. shoes ;
And nothing else but these were found,
- Among her ashes on the ground.
And when the good cats sat beside
The smoking ashes, how they cried!
‘‘Me-ow, me-oh, me-ow, me-oh!
What will Mamma and Nursy do?”
Their tears ran down their cheeks so fast,
They made a little pond at last.