THL RATS. 23 



their hole and meander along together, warbling to one 

 another in gentle undertones. Or perhaps the little ones at 

 home are growing up, and their mamma brings them out 

 to see the world. The first-born takes hold of her tail in 

 its teeth, its tail is grasped by the next, and so on to the 

 little Benjamin at the end, and thus the whole family, like 

 a hairy serpent, wriggles away together a sight, I admit, 

 to make one's flesh creep ; but, looked at in a proper spirit, 

 it is a moving spectacle, full of moral beauty ; and as for 

 the callous man who can see no beauty in it and would lift 

 his unfeeling stick to sever such a " family tie," I say with 

 Horace, 



" Vetabo sub iisdem 

 Sit trabibus, fragilemve mecum 

 Sol vat phaselum." 



