For that poor King no rest enjoy'd
All through the rats and mice,
They swept the food from off his board—
Puss killed them in a trice."
(And I should rather think she did, too, if the artist may be believed who depicts her simultaneously seizing one rat with her teeth, and two others with each of her fore paws.)
"The King then gave him heaps of gold
For an animal so rare;
The merchant brought it all to Dick,
Oh, how the boy did stare!
(And he is represented staring tremendously at a box, apparently four feet by two-and-a-half, and two-and-a-quarter high, marked "R. W.," and chock full of guineas.)
"The kindly bells had told him true
In saying, 'Turn again,'
For Whittington was thrice Lord Mayor
In great King Henry's reign."
The poem here concludes with a beautiful picture of a gentleman and a lady sitting on chairs of state. I am not quite certain whether this is intended to represent King Henry and his Queen, or Lord and Lady Whittington; as far as the portrait
