60 



THE RAT 



suppose that their very own children got some of 

 them, too, for they were beautifully fat and juicy 

 when my turn came. 



I had just looked out of my front-door one morn- 

 ing: it was a pretty safe front-door, as the hedge pro- 

 tected it ; and when the wind blew the branches of 

 the hedge about they scratched out some of the 

 hay, so that there was a regular screen over my 

 head, and nobody could have the least idea that 

 there was a rat's hole there, unless it was a prying 

 weasel, and weasels were very scarce thereabouts, 

 owing to the care of the keepers in exterminating 

 them. So that I was not doing anything very rash 

 in sitting at my front-door one morning. And as 

 1 sat theref I heard a bit of a scrimmage overhead, 

 and down dropped a plump young hedge-sparrow 

 just in front of my very nose, so that I could hardly 

 help eating it. It was exactly like a very juicy 

 sausage, and I wondered why it had fallen out of 

 the nest. It could hardly have been learning to fly 

 because it was quite naked, and I never saw a naked 

 bird fly yet. I enjoyed it so much that I went out 

 again on the next day, and I was well rewarded. I 

 was watching the nest this time, when I saw that 

 wicked young cuckoo deliberately push them out. 

 There were two of them this time. He was evidently 



