More English Fairy Tales

<SPAN name="Puddock_Mousie_and_Ratton" name='Puddock_Mousie_and_Ratton'></SPAN> <center> <ANTIMG src='images/illus198.jpg' width-obs='522' height-obs='200' alt='Puddock, Mousie, and Ratton' border='0' /> </center> <h2>Puddock, Mousie, and Ratton</h2> <br/> <span style='margin-left: 2.5em;'>There lived a Puddock in a well,</span><br/> <span style='margin-left: 2.5em;'>And a merry Mousie in a mill.</span><br/> <br/> <span style='margin-left: 2.5em;'>Puddock he would a-wooing rid</span><br/> <span style='margin-left: 2.5em;'>Sword and pistol by his side.</span><br/> <br/> <span style='margin-left: 2.5em;'>Puddock came to the Mousie's inn,</span><br/> <span style='margin-left: 2.5em;'>"Mistress Mousie, are you within?"</span><br/> <br/> <span style='margin-left: 3.5em;'>MOUSIE.</span><br/> <br/> <span style='margin-left: 2.5em;'>"Yes, kind Sir, I am within,</span><br/> <span style='margin-left: 2.5em;'>Softly do I sit and spin."</span><br/> <br/> <span style='margin-left: 3.5em;'>PUDDOCK.</span><br/> <br/> <span style='margin-left: 2.5em;'>"Madam, I am come to woo,</span><br/> <span style='margin-left: 2.5em;'>Marriage I must have of you."</span><br/> <br/> <span style='margin-left: 3.5em;'>MOUSIE.</span><br/> <br/> <span style='margin-left: 2.5em;'>"Marriage I will grant you none</span><br/> <span style='margin-left: 2.5em;'>Till Uncle Ratton he comes home."</span><br/> <br/> <span style='margin-left: 3.5em;'>PUDDOCK.</span><br/> <br/> <span style='margin-left: 2.5em;'>"See, Uncle Ratton's now come in</span><br/> <span style='margin-left: 2.5em;'>Then go and bask the bride within."</span><br/> <br/> <span style='margin-left: 2.5em;'>Who is it that sits next the wall</span><br/> <span style='margin-left: 2.5em;'>But Lady Mousie both slim and small?</span><br/> <br/> <span style='margin-left: 2.5em;'>Who is it that sits next the bride</span><br/> <span style='margin-left: 2.5em;'>But Lord Puddock with yellow side?</span><br/> <br/> <span style='margin-left: 2.5em;'>But soon came Duckie and with her Sir Drake;</span><br/> <span style='margin-left: 2.5em;'>Duckie takes Puddock and makes him squeak.</span><br/> <br/> <span style='margin-left: 2.5em;'>Then came in the old carl cat</span><br/> <span style='margin-left: 2.5em;'>With a fiddle on his back:</span><br/> <span style='margin-left: 2.5em;'>"Do ye any music lack?"</span><br/> <br/> <span style='margin-left: 2.5em;'>Puddock he swam down the brook,</span><br/> <span style='margin-left: 2.5em;'>Sir Drake he catched him in his fluke.</span><br/> <br/> <span style='margin-left: 2.5em;'>The cat he pulled Lord Ratton down,</span><br/> <span style='margin-left: 2.5em;'>The kittens they did claw his crown.</span><br/> <br/> <span style='margin-left: 2.5em;'>But Lady Mousie, so slim and small,</span><br/> <span style='margin-left: 2.5em;'>Crept into a hole beneath the wall;</span><br/> <span style='margin-left: 2.5em;'>"Squeak," quoth she, "I'm out of it all."</span><br/> <hr style='width: 65%;' /> <div style="break-after:column;"></div><br />