Learn English by POEM - THE MOUSE AND THE CAKE

A mouse found a beautiful piece of plum cake,
The richest and sweetest that mortal could make;
‘There’s a noise,1 cried the mouse, ‘ ’tis my brothers at play;
So I’ll hide with the cake, lest they wander this way.’

He nibbled, and nibbled, and panted, but still
He kept gulping it down till he made himself ill;
Yet he swallowed it all, and ’tis easy to guess,
He was soon so unwell that he groaned with distress.

His family heard him, and as he grew worse,
They sent for the doctor, who made him rehearse
How he’d eaten the cake to the very last crumb,
Without giving his playmates and relatives some.

‘Ah me!’ cried the doctor, ‘advice is too late;
You must die before long, so prepare for your fate.
If you had but divided the cake with your brothers,
’Twould have done you no harm, and been good for the others.
- Eliza Cook