3-061-429 - Heritage Art/Heritage Images

Crying cats and a pair of shoes - scene from "The Dreadful Story Of The Girl And The Lucifer Matches", 1856. 'Polly was left indoors alone, Her parents out to tea were gone; About the room she frisked and danced, And round about for playthings glanced; A box she on the table spied, T'was filled with lucifers inside...What's this? The flame has caught her clothes! Has burnt her frock - has singed her hair - She's all on fire I do declare! And Puss and Trot, the kittens, In anguish wrung their mittens; "Oh, dear!" they mew'd, "she's burning, Through our good counsel spurning! Miow! miaw! miow! miew! The girl's on fire - what shall we do!" There's no one near, poor hapless maid - (The little Cats can give no aid). Her clothes are burnt - hair, bones and skin. One mass of smoke she's buried in. At length there's nothing - well, a-day! Left but a heap of ashes gray, And two small shoes of poor Miss Polly To tell the tale so melancholy. And Puss and Trot, the Kittens, Put to their eyes their mittens; Their tears in torrents falling, Mewing in vain and squalling: "Miow! miaw! miow! miew! What will her wretched parents do?' Page 16 of "Funny Books for Boys and Girls. Struwelpeter. Good-for-nothing Boys and Girls. Troublesome Children. King Nutcracker and Poor Reinhold", 1856. [London, England]