THE CAT AND THE MOUSE;
OR, THE BROKEN PROMISE.
A GIDDY young mouse, full of frolic and play,
Fell into a barrel of still-beer one day,
And, flouncing and splashing and dashing about,
Strove long, but, alas! all in vain, to get out;
When a cat, half asleep, in a window he spies,
To whom for assistance forthwith he applies.
"Why ask me?" says puss; "to your race I'm a foe;
And when you were out, I should eat you, you know."
"Well, that would be better than perishing here,"
Said the poor little mouse, struggling hard in the beer;
"Then help me, I pray, to get out of this swill,
You may afterwards do with me—e'en what you will."
So the cat helped him out without further delay,
Then prepared the poor shivering victim to slay;
But the fumes of the beer getting into her head,
She sputtered and sneezed till her nose fairly bled,
And let go the mouse, who, not waiting to say
"By your leave," to his hole made the best of his way.
Her sneezing-fit over, Puss looked all around,
But no trace of the mouse could be anywhere found:
So she jumped in the window to finish her sleep;
But soon from a hole saw a little head peep,
With two small black eyes, which she instantly knew,
Though the head and the eyes in a moment withdrew.
"Aha!" said the cat, " you're there, Sir, I see:
Is it thus you comply with your promise to me?"
And much more she said to the head and the eyes,
When mouse, feeling safe, very boldly replies :
   "I should never, you say, break the promise I gave,
Although, in so doing, my life I might save.
Well, it does not by any means seem to me so;
For that promise I gave when in liquor, you know."

Source: https://books.google.com