Page 54 - Poetry-Animals

And a prouder cat was never seen!
For the Queen caught me up and said, said she,
“I tell you all that’s the cat for me!”
Now I take my nap on the steps of the throne,
And am fed by Her Highness’ hands alone.
And the Queen is so happy that she need not bewail
To find she is standing on her pussy cat’s tail.

— Margaret Lee (from a Victorian Scrap Album ca. 1900)

The Mountain and the Squirrel: A Fable

The mountain and the squirrel
Had a quarrel;
And the former called the latter “Little Prig.”
Bun replied,
“You are doubtless very big;
But all sorts of things and weather
Must be taken in together,
To make up a year
And a sphere.
And I think it no disgrace
To occupy my place.
If I’m not as large as you,
You are not so small as I,
And not half so spry.
I’ll not deny you make
A very pretty squirrel track;
Talents differ; all is well and wisely put;
If I cannot carry forests on my back,
Neither can you crack a nut.

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

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