RATS 129 



The rats in revenge come prowling all about 

 my room. I hear them snorting and tearing up 

 paper in the waste-paper basket the moment the 

 light is out, and prodding with their noses against 

 the lid of the soap-dish in the next room. Soap 

 they love, particularly good kinds, and it is most 

 annoying to go to one's bath and find that the rats 

 have taken away the soap. 



" What ! no soap ? So she went into the garden 

 to cut a cabbage-leaf." But she doesn't. It would 

 be untimely. Poor tired Unda could not always 

 remember to put away her gloves after a dance. 

 So sure as they were left on the table, they would 

 be found next morning with half the fingers eaten 

 off;- 



" And there, dear Unda, goes 6s. 8d. ! a lawyer's 

 fee!" 



As for sofa-cushions, we haven't one that has 

 not had its corners nibbled off, to yield up the seed 

 of the tree cotton with which the pillow is stuffed. 

 Traps have no attraction for them in the house, 

 though baited with the best soap ; and poison we 

 cannot use, on account of the dogs. In the kitchen, 



though, once the cook's boy sat up all night, catch- 



R 



