The Cat Metamorphosed into a Woman

A bachelor caress'd his cat, / A darling, fair, and delicate; / So deep in love, he thought her mew / The sweetest voice he ever knew. / By prayers, and tears, and magic art, / The man got Fate to take his part; / And, lo! one morning at his side / His cat, transform'd, became his bride. / In wedded state our man was seen / The fool in courtship he had been. / No lover e'er was so bewitch'd / By any maiden's charms / As was this husband, so enrich'd / By hers within his arms. / He praised her beauties, this and that, / And saw there nothing of the cat. / In short, by passion's aid, he / Thought her a perfect lady.

'Twas night: some carpet-gnawing mice / Disturb'd the nuptial joys. / Excited by the noise, / The bride sprang at them in a trice; / The mice were scared and fled. / The bride, scarce in her bed, / The gnawing heard, and sprang again, -- / And this time not in vain, / For, in this novel form array'd, / Of her the mice were less afraid. / Through life she loved this mousing course, / So great is stubborn nature's force.