184 THE PLOUGHING 



without water, and, being separated by only an 

 embankment from the river and its tributary brook 

 enclosing the marsh, offer ready access when they 

 feel disposed to stretch their limbs in the wider 

 waters, or to pay a nocturnal visit to the standing 

 corn-stooks in the fields lying beyond. 



These ditches are not waterways only, but also 

 avenues, for rank, lush grass grows as strong and 

 coarse as reeds on their banks, and spreads to arch 

 them over. Upon this rank growth the municipal 

 bill-hook first tries its edge, and the full swathes fall 

 right and left, disclosing innumerable "runs" and 

 tunnels among its roots. There has been a sort of 

 under- world here, with highways and byways ; and 

 even beneath the water the crossings are beaten flat 

 by continual passage from one bank to the other. 



As we watch, the snout of a brown rat appears at 

 one of the holes now laid open to the day, and the 

 nostrils quiver and sniff inquiringly; then he turns 

 back, and a few minutes later, the whole ditch-end 

 seems to know that the thatch has been lifted from 

 their waterway. For one after another of its denizens 

 peeps from the riddled bank, and the squeaks of 

 others behind betoken pressure among those unable 

 to command a hole. 



Your rat is a great experimentalist. He has 

 sharpened his wits upon generations of men and dogs ; 

 he knows more of mechanics than the trap-maker, and 

 has given him the go-by ; it takes a rat to catch 

 a rat, or, what is much the same, a ferret ; and 

 even the latter gets his ears cuffed times enough 

 for his educated stupidity. Your rat is also too 

 catholic to condemn a reformation for its novelty ; 



