THREE NAUGHTY KITTENS.

THERE once were three kittens who lived on a farm, And never were kittens who did so much harm; They worried the chickens, and snarled at the hen, And scratched at the pig through a hole in the pen; They climbed on the sty and hung over the rail, And bit off the curl from a little pig’s tail. The horses they scared, and they frightened the cows, By shrieking out at them with dreadful me-ows; They worried the ducks and they bothered the geese, And clawed at the ram till he lost all his fleece; They frightened the bossy calf half into fits, And spit at the dog till he half lost his wits. They knocked down the turkey and rolled him about, They rumpled his feathers, and pulled them all out; Such horrible faces they made at the drake, He went straight and drowned himself off in the lake; They fought the old rooster upon his own hill, Till all that was left were his spurs and his bill. They drank up the milk and tipped over the cream, And gave the old parrot a horrible dream; They chewed up the tab-strings of grandmother’s cap, While she, poor old lady, was taking a nap; So shocking the squealing they made in their pride, The children all ran, and the baby it cried. They played with the meal and the hominy bags, And tore them all up into tatters and rags; They climbed by their claws up the farmer’s new clothes, And knocked his gold spectacles off from his nose; The meat in the pantry they stole from the hooks, And chewed up the children’s nice Sunday-school books. These kittens left nothing at all to itself, Save only the mice on the store-closet shelf; The farmer’s good wife bore it meekly and long, Though telling them oft they were naughty and wrong; She argued and reasoned by day and by night, But nothing could make them behave as was right. Her patience, one morning, was wholly worn out, So, ere they discovered what she was about, She clapped them all three in a covered tin pail, And carried them straight to the great county jail. And there they have kept them to this very day, Locked up in a cell where they can’t get away.