by worrying a dog, to the huge delight of Sir Walter Scott; yet who, combining courtesy with valour, was wont to awaken her mistress when she lay late abed, by very gently placing one paw "with its glove on" upon the closed lids. Perhaps this peerless creature was also, in the main, a kitchen cat, Miss Baillie having strict views of her own as to the nature of feline duties.
"Still be thou deemed by housewife fat,
A comely, careful, mousing cat,
"Whose dish is, for the public good,
Replenished oft with savoury food;"
is the sober future she holds out to the kitten sporting by the fire,—the tiny comedian whose irresponsible gayety beguiled her heart, and prompted some of her prettiest lines.
"Backwards coiled, and crouching low,
With glaring eye-balls watch thy foe,
The housewife's spindle whirling round,
Or thread or straw, that on the ground
Its shadow throws, by urchin sly
Held out to lure thy roving eye;
Then, onward stealing, fiercely spring
Upon the futile, faithless thing.
Now, wheeling round with bootless skill,
Thy bo-peep tail provokes thee still,
And oft, beyond thy curving side,
Its jetty tip is seen to glide.
.....
The nimblest tumbler, stage-bedight,
To thee is but a clumsy wight,
