Whence hast thou then, thou witless puss! 
     The magic power to charm us thus? 
     Is it that in thy glaring eye
     And rapid movements we descry—­
     Whilst we at ease, secure from ill,
     The chimney corner snugly fill—­
     A lion darting on his prey,
     A tiger at his ruthless play? 
     Or is it that in thee we trace,
     With all thy varied wanton grace,
     An emblem, viewed with kindred eye
     Of tricky, restless infancy? 
     Ah! many a lightly sportive child,
     Who hath like thee our wits beguiled,
     To dull and sober manhood grown,
     With strange recoil our hearts disown.

     And so, poor kit! must thou endure,
     When thou becom’st a cat demure,
     Full many a cuff and angry word,
     Chased roughly from the tempting board. 
     But yet, for that thou hast, I ween,
     So oft our favored playmate been,
     Soft be the change which thou shalt prove! 
     When time hath spoiled thee of our love,
     Still be thou deemed by housewife fat
     A comely, careful, mousing cat,
     Whose dish is, for the public good,
     Replenished oft with savory food,
     Nor, when thy span of life is past,
     Be thou to pond or dung-hill cast,
     But, gently borne on goodman’s spade,
     Beneath the decent sod be laid;
     And children show with glistening eyes
     The place where poor old pussy lies.

HENRY MARTYN BAIRD

(1832-)

That stirring period of the history of France which in certain of its features has been made so familiar by Dumas through the ’Three Musketeers’ series and others of his fascinating novels, is that which has been the theme of Dr. Baird in the substantial work to which so many years of his life have been devoted.  It is to the elucidation of one portion only of the history of this period that he has given himself; but although in this, the story of the Huguenots, nominally only a matter of religious belief was involved, it in fact embraced almost the entire internal politics of the nation, and the struggles for supremacy of its ambitious families, as well as the effort to achieve religious freedom.

[Illustration:  HENRY M. BAIRD]

In these separate but related works the incidents of the whole Protestant movement have been treated.  The first of these, ’The History of the Rise of the Huguenots in France’ (1879), carries the story to the time of Henry of Valois (1574), covering the massacre of St. Bartholomew; the second, ‘The Huguenots and Henry of Navarre’ (1886), covers the Protestant ascendancy and the Edict of Nantes, and ends with the assassination of Henry in 1610; and the third, ’The Huguenots and the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes’ (1895), completes the main story, and indeed brings the narrative down to a date much later than the title seems to imply.