56 



THE RAT 



about six great cats, where a man would keep dogs ; 

 and dogs in a house are very harmless beasts, while 

 cats are an unmitigated nuisance, if I may be 

 allowed to express my feelings rather strongly on 

 the subject. 



The lady ruler of this mansion insisted on her 

 poor husband smoking at night in the kitchen, or, 

 rather, I believe that she tried to put a stop to his 

 smoking altogether, and he just slunk down now 

 and then to enjoy a moment's peace over his pipe 

 before the kitchen fire. So it came about that, as 

 I was questing around for stray crumbs (there was 

 no chance of getting at anything better in the way 

 of cheese or bacon), I came across something rather 

 like a small candle, which did not smell so very 

 bad. I cannot say that I exactly liked it, but it 

 was better than nothing, and I was nibbling at 

 it in a meditative sort of way, when suddenly 

 my teeth encountered a hard substance, and there 

 was a hideous spurt of flame right against my poor 

 nose. I thought for one awful moment that my 

 head was blown off by some deadly new invention 

 of the man who had been smoking in the room, 

 and when I recovered my senses I fled from the 

 house, never to return. I know now that I had 

 only encountered the business end of a wax match 



