14 



THE RAT 



faster than you, don't waste any time in running 

 after him, but look around for another hole for 

 yourself, and, if there isn't one, go somewhere else 

 as quickly as you can.' 



Perhaps that looks rather a long rule to learn, 

 but at any rate it is better than always learning 

 ' Don't '; and besides, when you know that your 

 life is pretty certain to depend upon it sooner or 

 later, it is wonderful how quickly you can learn 

 any rule. You are sure to see one or two of your 

 friends and relations killed every month because 

 they have not learnt the rule quite thoroughly 

 enough. You are lucky if they are not the persons 

 who see you killed, and all that sort of thing is a 

 wonderful help to memory. If you were told that 

 ' last into bed ' did not have to ' put out the light,' 

 but very likely got his own light put out — that is 

 to say, got spiflicated himself — you would be in a 

 much greater hurry to get into bed than you are. 

 I often wish that you would go quicker when I 

 am waiting for the light to go out in order to get 

 my supper. 



So far as I know, my family does not figure very 

 largely in the history of the world. The spiders 

 are very proud of an ancestor of theirs who taught 

 some ancient hero to persevere, and they have also 



