Poem by Edith Nesbit

Gratitude

   I FOUND a starving cat in the street:
      It cried for food and a place by the fire.
   I carried it home, and I strove to meet
      The claims of its desire.

   And since its desire was a little fish,
      A little hay and a little milk,
   I gave it cream in a silver dish
      And a basket lined with silk.

   And when we came to the grateful pause
      When it should have fawned on the hand that fed,
   It turned to a devil all teeth and claws,
      Scratched me and bit me and fled.

   To pay for the fish and the milk and the hay
      With a purr had been an easy task:
   But its hate and my blood were required to pay
      For the gifts that it did not ask.

1. Love and Knowledge
2. The Stolen God
3. To One Who Pleaded for Candour in Love
4. A Last Appeal
5. The Kiss

Lucy Montgomery Gratitude ("I thank thee, friend, for the beautiful thought")

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