DIRTY KITTY-CAT.

YOU surely have heard of the bad kitty-cat, A source of great grief to her mother, I’m sorry to say if you search round about, You’ll doubtless find many another. She did love dirt, and she did not love soap, And she certainly hated a tubbing, And her mother declared if she did not keep clean, She’d give her a thorough good scrubbing. She won’t be happy when she gets it, No, she won’t be happy when she gets it, Now, just take my word, ’Tis the truth you have heard, She won’t be happy when she gets it. Kitty cared not a bit for her dear mother’s threat, Too often she’d heard the same story, Till one fated day to her home she returned, All muddy, and dirty, and gory. She’d just had a fall, she smilingly said, When mother remarked her condition; Then she walked to her rug and curled down for a nap, And did nothing to show her contrition. Oh, she’ll be happy when she gets it, Now, won’t she be happy when she gets it? For I saw her mother’s eye, As kitty gaily passed her by, And I know she’ll be happy when she gets it. That mud and dirt and gore Were really the last straw to break the camel’s back, That mother watched that kit, then looked about her quick, And decided that the time was very ripe for her to act. She seized that little kit by the back of the neck, And dragged her to a fast-running stream, All in vain were her screams, For into that stream was she hastily and speedily tossed. Oh, wasn’t she happy when she got it! I told you that she’d be so; But she swam for her dear life, To the shore where mother stood, And promised ever more to be good, For she wasn’t a bit happy when she got it.