ALONE IN A ROOM FULL OF RATS 15 



It was a sight that would have pleased the Pied 

 Piper and warmed the cockles of his heart. The 

 room fairly swarmed with rats. There were big 

 rats, little rats, and half-grown rats. For an hour 

 or more I sat upon those wooden steps and 

 watched the circus. The boisterous play of these 

 creatures made me understand how it is possible 

 for such small animals as rats to make so much 

 noise in an attic or a vacant room. 



One rat ran up to the top of the broom handle; 

 the broom was standing in the corner by the sink, 

 resting partly against the sink and partly against 

 the wall and no sooner had the rat done this 

 than another rat followed. Then all the rats 

 seemed to be possessed by a desire to occupy the 

 pinnacle of the broom handle and so they swarmed 

 up and up until the brown mass at the top made 

 the broom topple and fall. In falling it hit a lot 

 of cooking implements and a large dish-pan and 

 brought them down with a bang and a crash upon 

 the brick floor, but the rats seemed to take this as 

 a matter of course and showed not the least alarm. 

 As soon as they landed on their feet they imme- 

 diately set about finding some other means of en- 

 tertainment. They pulled every movable thing 

 over the floor, back and forward ; they took an old 

 newspaper and yanked it from one end of the sum- 

 mer kitchen to the other. One of them found a 

 chicken bone and then ensued a wild race around 

 and around the kitchen. They indulged in phe- 

 nomenal leaps ; they tried to scale the walls by run- 



