66 



THE RAT 



my first journey into the world, for I had never 

 gone far away from my haystack, and that was not 

 far from the home of my infancy, and I went on 

 my way very nervously, listening with all my ears to 

 catch every sound, and stopping to wrinkle up my 

 nose at every smell. After all, it was no very great 

 journey, though I had to swim a small stream, and 

 for a first attempt I flatter myself that I swam 

 pretty well. It was so cool and refreshing that I 

 had half a mind to turn into a water-rat for a time, 

 but as all the other animals kept moving onwards, 

 I thought that I had better go with the crowd, 

 and, after threading my way carefully along two 

 or three more hedgerows, I found myself in the 

 promised land. 



I suppose that a corn-field seems to you to be a 

 very ordinary kind of thing, but that is because you 

 have only looked along the top of it. Even when 

 seen in that way it must look rather pretty when 

 the wind is sending the waves of shadow over it. 

 But if you were to crawl along the hedge among 

 the edging of tall grass and flowers, ragwort and 

 scabious, and poppies and knapweed, which grows 

 round every corn-field that I have ever seen, and then 

 lie down and put your head close to the ground, and 

 look in among the thousands of stalks of corn, I 



