TO MY LITTLE NIECE, KITTIE.
[With a Maltese Kitten.]
Kittie Mabel, will you take
This gift, for the giver’s sake?
Verse and song and roundelay
Will be yours this merry day;
Mine are all unfit to send,
Tattered rhymes, too poor to mend.
But, although I haven’t any
Songs, my thoughts are swift and many.
All are flying straight to you,
And your heart, so sweet and true,
I am sure, dear, won’t decline
This small, furry Valentine.