“And tell me, fair sir, thy title and birth,

For of high degree thou art surely come;

I have room by my hearth for a stranger of worth,

And a welcome to boot to my royal home.

For, sooth to speak, my name is Puffcheek,

And I come of Bullfrog’s lordly line;

I govern the bogs, the realm of the frogs,

A sceptred king by right divine.”

II

Then up and spake the mighty mouse: