SCENE I
[Cat on pedestal appears at left of center. Maiden, Fisher, Man with Cod, etc., all stand ready to appear in proper order. The Mice and Lobster are in place.]
Maiden walks slowly in, turns, and walks out.
There stood a castle years ago
In Egypt by the Nile;
Within its walls a maiden dwelt
Whose heart was free from guile.
Cat’s eyes roll, mouth opens and shuts, and tail wags.
Within the castle also dwelt
A cat of high degree.
A Sacred Cat with yellow eyes
As big as big could be.
Mice and rats run across stage, while cat wags tail.
Her throne was on a pedestal,
—And there she always sat;
She was too dignified to run
To catch a mouse or rat.
Eyes open and shut.
She never blinked her yellow eyes
Except to give assent.
To her in trouble or in doubt
The household always went.
Men enter with cream and fish, and after pouring out cream, and offering it and the fish to the cat, disappear at further end of stage.
Enter fisher with rod and line.
The cream on which she daily fed,
Was in a silver dish;
And seven men were kept at work
Supplying her with fish.
Eyes roll.
The fisher, on his cunning line,
Brought in the eel and trout;
The cat beheld with greedy eyes,
And wagged her tail about.
Man enters with cod, and lobster is pulled up by a string, from below floor of stage.
A cod, of size magnificent,
Was turned upon a spit,
And by it stood the lobster, which
Was always served with it.
[Screen the Light]