Eugene Field,
The Mouse and The Moonbeam
“ Ah, little Dear-my-Soul, you know—you know whereof the moonbeam spake. The shepherd’s bones are dust, the flocks are scattered, the old olive-tree is gone, the flowers of the hill-side are withered, and none knoweth where the grave of Dimas is made. But last night, again, there shined a star over Bethlehem, and the angels descended from the sky to earth, and the stars sang together in glory. ”
Eugene Field,
The Mouse and The Moonbeam
“ I’ll not hurt you,’ said the ghost in white fur; ‘I’m Santa Claus, and I’ve brought you a beautiful piece of savory old cheese, you dear little mousie, you.’ Poor Squeaknibble was deceived; a sceptic all her life, she was at last befooled by the most palpable and most fatal of frauds. ‘How good of you!’ said Squeaknibble. ‘I didn’t believe there was a Santa Claus, and—’ but before she could say more she was seized by two sharp, cruel claws that conveyed her crushed body to the murderous mouth of mousedom’s most malignant foe. ”
Eugene Field,
The Mouse and The Moonbeam
“ Yes, I recall the time; that cat’s tongue is fully as sharp as her claws.”“Be that as it may,” said the little mauve mouse, “it is a matter of history, and therefore beyond dispute, that from that very moment the cat pined for Squeaknibble’s life; it seemed as if that one little two-inch taste of Squeaknibble’s tail had filled the cat with a consuming passion, or appetite, for the rest of Squeaknibble. So the cat waited and watched and hunted and schemed and devised and did everything possible for a cat—a cruel cat—to do in order to gain her murderous ends. ”
