  The old saying of "A cat may look at the queen" is thus expressed in a dialogue between a ward nurse of Elizabeth's time and a truant tom on its return to the nursery. "Ward Nurse: Pussy-cat, pussy-cat, where have you been? "Cat: I've been to London to see the queen. "Ward Nurse: Pussy-cat, pussy-cat, what did you there? "Cat: I frightened a little mouse from under her chair." No doubt the incident giving rise to this verse had to do with the terrible "Ten little mice sat down to spin, Pussy looked down, and she looked in. What are you doing, my little men? We're making some clothes for gentlemen. Shall I come in to cut your threads? No, kind sir, you'll bite off our heads." One more rhyme of Queen Elizabeth's time begins— "The rose is red, the grass is green, Serve Queen Bess, our noble queen." Will sit down to dinner, And eat the leg of a frog. All the good people Will look o'er the steeple And see a cat play with a dog." "I love little pussy, her coat is so warm, And if I don't hurt her she'll do me no harm; I won't pull her tail, nor drive her away, But pussy and I together will play." "Three cats sat by the fireside, In a basket full of coal-dust; One cat said to the other, 'Su pu, pell mell—Queen Anne's dead!' 'Is she?' quoth Grimalkin, 'then I'll reign in her stead.' Then up, up, up, they flew, up the chimney." Or— "What a naughty trick was that to drown my granny's pussy cat, Who never did any harm, but caught the mice in father's barn." CAT TALE OF DICK WHITTINGTON.This legend of Dick Whittington is of Eastern origin. The story of the poor boy whose ill-fortune was so strangely reversed by the performances of his cat and |
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