guinea pig, 1773

A Guinea-pig Song.
By Anonymous, 1773

There was a little guinea-pig,
Who, being little, was not big;
He always walked upon his feet,
And never fasted when he eat.

When from a place he run away,
He never at the place did stay;
And while he run, as I am told,
He ne'er stood still for young or old.

He often squeaked, and sometimes violent,
And when he squeaked he ne'er was silent.
Though ne'er instructed by a cat,
He knew a mouse was not a rat.

One day, as I am certified,
He took a whim and fairly died;
And as I am told by men of sense,
He ne'er has been living since.

-- from The Oxford Book of Children's Verse, Opie, Peter and Iona, editors. New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1973.