The Embarrassing Episode of Little Miss Muffet

Little Miss Muffet discovered a tuffet,(Which never occurred to the rest of us)And, as ’twas a June day, and just about noonday,She wanted to eat—like the best of us:Her diet was whey, and I hasten to sayIt is wholesome and people grow fat on it.The spot being lonely, the lady not onlyDiscovered the tuffet, but sat on it.

A rivulet gabbled beside her and babbled,As rivulets always are thought to do,And dragon-flies sported around and cavorted,As poets say dragon-flies ought to do;When, glancing aside for a moment, she spiedA horrible sight that brought fear to her,A hideous spider was sitting beside herAnd most unavoidably near to her!

Albeit unsightly, this creature politelySaid: “Madam, I earnestly vow to you,I’m penitent that I did not bring my hat. IShould otherwise certainly bow to you.”Though anxious to please, he was so ill at easeThat he lost all his sense of propriety,And grew so inept that he clumsily steptIn her plate—which is barred in Society.

This curious error completed her terror;She shuddered, and growing much paler, notOnly left tuffet, but dealt him a buffetWhich doubled him up in a sailor-knot.It should be explained that at this he was pained:He cried: “I have vexed you, no doubt of it!Your fist’s like a truncheon.” “You’re still in my luncheon,”Was all that she answered. “Get out of it!”

And The moral is this: Be it madam or missTo whom you have something to say,You are only absurd when you get in the curdBut you’re rude when you get in the whey.