But be sure that you

're at home before

the midnight hour shall ring."

Then the Gnome went up the chimney whence

she came a moment since,

And dear Cinderella hastened to the german and

the Prince.

All the noble lords and ladies paused and

courtesied to her

As she swept the polished marbles, where her scornful sisters were.

And the Prince her "Dancing Order" quite monopolized, and she

Was the picture of his fancy, it was plain enough

to see.

And he pledged her in the rarest and the most

expensive wines,

Till his eyes were traitors to him, and all zigzag were his lines.

So she triumphed at the german over all the

guests, until

It was rumored that her sisters found the evening

very chill.

Yet I doubt not through the ages one pervading

purpose runs,

And the eyes of girls are dazzled by the brilliance of the sons.

Oh, the evening was so pleasant, and the ices were so good,

It was hard for her to leave them as she promised that she would.

So she tarried, and the Prince began his pastoral of love,

And she quite forgot the midnight till the clock struck quarter of.

Up she jumped, and from the palace in a storm of girlish fear

Scorned decorum, rushing onward like a hunted, frightened deer.

And she never slacked her speed until she reached

the house, and there

When she added up her slippers found she had

but half a pair.

Sleep for her was very broken. Things for her

were in a fix;

And a worried conscience called her in the morn-ing long ere six.

Hark! the King's policemen shouting in the mid

dle of the street;

They are crying, "Cinderella, what's the measure of your feet?"

They had tried to fit that slipper for a dreary, dreary while,

And the feet that they had measured were enough

to make a mile.