SUMMER DAYS 



55 



willow bark and dead man, and one other thing 

 that gave me perhaps the biggest fright that I have 

 ever experienced. You would never guess what it 

 was, even if I allowed you a thousand guesses. I 

 was pottering about one night in the kitchen of a 

 big house. I had just lost my seventh wife, and 

 was wandering about looking for somebody to take 

 her place. The last three had been bad wives, and, 

 being rather aristocratic in my tastes, I had made 

 my way into the big house in question in the 

 hopes of finding the lady of my dreams, a queenly 

 sort of rat with a very pointed nose. Not one of 

 my previous wives had quite reached the standard 

 of my ideal lady, but luckily they had all met with 

 accidents, and had left me free to pursue my quest. 



Unfortunately, the house which I had selected, 

 though its exterior was very imposing, was terribly 

 barren within. It was ruled by a woman with a 

 rod of iron, and where a woman rules rats have a 

 poor time. A man can be trusted to make some 

 sort of litter, if he is only allowed his own way, and 

 he is rather fond of keeping a few rats about the 

 premises, to give his mind a little gentle exercise in 

 the way of inventing traps ; but a woman always 

 tidies away all scraps, and never rests until she 

 has cleared the house of rats. She generally keeps 



