. St. Nicholas [serial]. J9°4-] AMNES AND HIS CAT. 251 But Tabbys tail was thick and soft;With yearning he had marked it oft,And now — temptation was too great:He grasped — oh, awful to relate,Regardless of his future fate,Deliberately he squeezed it! Within the hall the feast was spread,The guests filed in, by Nepthah led, Her ladies, coming up in rows,Held lotus-blossoms to her nose,While ran the guests, in panic wild,To seek and seize the erring childWhose fault their feast had tainted. But Amnes, listening from without,Felt, all too late, a fearful doubt,Beheld his crime atrocious ;. the w
. St. Nicholas [serial]. J9°4-] AMNES AND HIS CAT. 251 But Tabbys tail was thick and soft;With yearning he had marked it oft,And now — temptation was too great:He grasped — oh, awful to relate,Regardless of his future fate,Deliberately he squeezed it! Within the hall the feast was spread,The guests filed in, by Nepthah led, Her ladies, coming up in rows,Held lotus-blossoms to her nose,While ran the guests, in panic wild,To seek and seize the erring childWhose fault their feast had tainted. But Amnes, listening from without,Felt, all too late, a fearful doubt,Beheld his crime atrocious ;. the wanderer, seated piteousupon a chill sarcophagus. The view was more than pleasing,When on the air, so calm but now,There rose a shrill and dreadful Miaow !That drove the color from each brow, Their blood with horror freezing. Too well that anguished wail they knew!Prince Nepthah from the table flew,The princess screamed and fainted. And gripping Tabby close, for fearThat she might tell,— the cats, we hear,In Egypt were precocious,— Rose up and fled. The barn, the pond,The brimming granaries beyond —These would not do for hiding!The sphinxes, looming vast and dim,Looked dumb reproach and scorn on him! 252 AMNES AND HIS CAT. Alas! Then all at once he thought into his head had popped:There was a place whose friendly gloomFor him and Tabby too had room,A cheerful spot — his fathers tomb,The princes own providing. Upon the hill, not far away,This crown of Nepthahs splendor lay;And here they found, when twilight fell(For not a sphinx, it seems, would tell),The wanderer
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Keywords: ., bookauthordodgemar, bookcentury1800, bookdecade1870, bookyear1873
