"FOUR-P AWS."

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1634, 28 December 1912, Page 11

"FOUR-P AWS."

Four-paws, the kitten from the farm, Is come to live with Betsey-Jane, Leaving the stack-yard for the/warm ' Flower-compassed cottage in the lane, To wash his idle face and play Among chintz cushions all the day.

Under the shadow of her hair _ Ho lies, "who loves him nor desists To praise his whiskers and compare The tabby bracelets on his wristsOmelet at lunch and milk at tea Suit Betsey-Jane, and so fares he..

Happy beneath her golden hand He purrs contentedly, nor hears His Mother mourning through the land, The old grey,cat with tattered ears And humble tail and heavy paw ■ Who brought him up among the straw.

Novur by day she ventures nigh, But when the dusk grows dim and deep And moths flit out of the strange eky And Betsey has been long asleep—_ Out of the dark she comes and brings Her dark maternal offerings—

Some field-mouse or a throstle caught Near netted'fruit or in the corn, Or rat, for this her darling sought •In the old barn wheTe he was bom; , And all-test on his dainty bed Four-paws were faint or '.under-fed.

Only between the twilight hours TJnder the window-panes she walks Shrewdly among the scented flowers. Nor snaps the soft nasturtium stalks, Uttering still her plaintive cries, . And Four-paws, from the house, replies.

leaps from his cushion to- ths floor, Down the-brick passage scantly lit, iWaits ivailinf at. the,..outer-'door, ;,y , ■ Till on©' arise and open y_it=- 'y ■ Thin from the swinging lantern s light Runs to bis Mother in. the night. ■ -■ ■ • ''Punch."