The Shadow on the Wall by Mary C. Landon

The child was suddenly hushed, and the weeper,

For into the black-beamed house

A footfall came and a silence deeper

Than still of a gold-eyed mouse.
The clock said 12, but the hands were stopped;

‘Twas one to the dawn and four

From the midnight hour the ring had dropped

Down to the black-beamed floor.
Nobody knew but the still child that

The candles were ladies tall

And the spitting fire a Maltese cat,

And the shadow on the wall…