Peeps at Our Pets

Abstract

Here is a reproduction of a children's book of verse about animals. The original must have come from sometime in the 1890's or so. There are sixteen pages in all, including the stiff covers. Some pages feature colored and others black-and-white illustrations. On 10 we find a parody of BC titled Belling the Cat. This verse-story has to do, not with putting a bell around a cat's neck, but with ringing the doorbell of Tommy Mouser, the cat. The illustration shows a little mouse ringing the doorbell (marked Visitors) and Tommy looking through the door, which is open just a bit. Here is the last half of the poem: They ring it once, they ring it twice,/Alas, the truth to tell,/For once too often, these six mice/Ring Tommy Mouser's bell./Tom hid behind the door, they say,/The Mother mouse looks glum,/She knows that never from their play/Those little mice will come.