Page:Poems of Anne Countess of Winchilsea 1903.djvu/325

 COUNTESS OF WINCHILSEA ���187 ���Believe me, quoth the list'ning Sage, �'Twas not to save the Charge; That in this over-building Age, �My House was not more large. �But this for faithful Friends, and kind, �Was only meant by me; Who fear that what too streight you find, �Must yet contracted be. �THE YOUNG RAT AND HIS DAM, THE COCK AND THE CAT �No Cautions of a Matron, Old and Sage, �Young Rattlehead to Prudence cou'd engage ; �But forth the Offspring of her Bed wou'd go, �Nor reason gave, but that he wou^d do so. �Much Counsel was, at parting, thrown away, �Ev'n all, that Mother-Rat to Son cou'd say ; �Who follow'd him with utmost reach of Sight, �Then, lost in Tears, and in abandon'd Plight, �Turn'd to her mournful Cell, and bid the World Good �Night. �But Fortune, kinder than her boding Thought, 10 �In little time the Vagrant homewards brought, Rais'd in his Mind, and mended in his Dress, Who the Bel-air did every way confess, Had learnt to flow'r his Wigg, nor brusht away The falling Meal, that on his Shoulders lay ; And from a Nutshell, wimbl'd by a Worm, Took Snuff, and cou'd the Government reform. The Mother, weeping from Maternal Love, To see him thus prodigiously improve, Expected mighty Changes too, within, 20 �And Wisdom to avoid the Cat, and Gin. ��� �