(this is from my favorite storybook as a child)

Two little kittens
one stormy night,
began to quarrel,
and then to fight.

One had a mouse;
the other had none,
and that's the way
the quarrel begun.

"I'll have that mouse!",
said the bigger cat.
"You'll have that mouse?
We'll see about that!"

"I will have that mouse"
said the eldest son.
"You sha'n't have that mouse",
said the little one.

The old woman seized her
sweeping broom,
and swept both kittens
right out of the room.

The ground was covered
with frost and snow
and the two little kittens
had nowhere to go.

They lay and shivered
on a mat at the door
While the old woman
was sweeping the floor.

And then they crept in,
as quiet as mice,
all wet with the snow,
and as cold as ice.

And found it much better
that stormy night,
to lie by the fire,
than to quarrel and fight.

(circa 1879 - author unknown)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

from the book "The Gateway to Storyland"
by Watty Piper
original copyright 1925,
copyright 1945 (revised edition)
Platt & Munk Co., Inc
New York

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