(TUPPER)

Soft little beasts, how pleasantly ye lie

Snuggling and snoozling by your purring sire,

Mother I mean (but sonnet-rhymes require

A shorter word, and boldly I defy

Those who would tie the bard by pedant rule).

O kittens, you're not thinking, I'll be bound,

How three of you had yesterday been drowned

But that my little boy came home from school,

And begged your lives, though Cook remonstrance made,