20 



THE RAT 



hopeless to think of trying to escape, because there 

 was only one tiny window in each dungeon, far too 

 high up for anyone to be able to reach it and climb 

 out. 



The worst dungeons of all were underground, 

 and the damp trickled down the walls, and covered 

 them with a green and loathsome slime, which 

 oozed off the stones and made a nasty carpet on the 

 floor. And, to make things still more hopeless, 

 strong chains of rusty iron were locked round the 

 prisoners' ankles. People did not live very long in 

 these dungeons, as you may well imagine, though 

 sometimes their friends contrived to come and take 

 them out just in time. 



It seems strange, does it not, that anything 

 should voluntarily go into one of these dark and 

 gloomy dungeons. And yet history says that the 

 rats went ; but then, of course, they could always 

 get out again when they chose, which makes all the 

 difference. The walls, which looked so massive and 

 solid, were really hollow in places, hollow enough 

 for a rat to climb about, unless extreme old age 

 had paralyzed his limbs. This did indeed happen 

 sometimes, because these dungeons, though they 

 were terribly deadly to the prisoners, were very safe 

 places for rats to live in. The gaolers considered 



