StoryTitle("caps", "The Council Held by the Rats") ?>
PoemStart() ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Old Rodiland, a certain Cat, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Such havoc of the Rats had made", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "'Twas difficult to find a Rat", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "With nature’s debt unpaid.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "The few that did remain, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "To leave their holes afraid,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "From usual food abstain, ", "") ?>
PagePoem(198, "L0", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Not eating half their fill.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And wonder no one will", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "That one who made on Rats his revel,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "With Rats passed not for Cat, but devil.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Now, on a day, this dread rat-eater,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Who had a wife, went out to meet her.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And while he held his caterwauling,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "The unkilled Rats, their chapter calling,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Discussed the point, in grave debate,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "How they might shun impending fate.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Their dean, a prudent Rat,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Thought best and better soon than late,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "To bell the fatal Cat;", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "That, when he took his hunting round,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "The Rats, well cautioned by the sound,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Might hide in safety under ground.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Indeed, he knew no other means;", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And all the rest ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "At once confessed ", "") ?>
PagePoem(199, "L0", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Their minds were with the dean’s.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "No better plan, they all believed,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Could possible have been conceived.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "No doubt the thing would work right well", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "If any one would hang the bell.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "But one by one said every Rat,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "\"I’m not so big a fool as that.\"", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "The plan knocked up in this respect,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "The council closed without effect.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And many a council I have seen,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Or reverend chapter, with its dean,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "That, thus resolving wisely, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Fell through like this, precisely.", "") ?>
PoemEnd() ?>
DisplayImage("text", "zpage199", "
", "
", "center", "70", "5", "5", "[Illustration]") ?>
PoemStart() ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "To argue or refute,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "Wise councilors abound.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "The man to execute", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "Is harder to be found. ", "") ?>
PoemEnd() ?>