IS 



THE RAT 



discussion among us, and that is whether the brown 

 rats or the black rats are the real aristocracy of the 

 family. There seems to be very little doubt that 

 England was once populated with black rats ; in 

 fact, we ourselves acknowledge their claim to the 

 title of ' Old English Black Rat,' and they are 

 allowed, if they like, to put the letters O.E.B.R. 

 after their names, which are otherwise like ours. 

 But there are so very few of them now — in fact, I 

 have never met one myself— that the question of 

 precedence really does not matter much. If you 

 never meet a particular kind of rat, it does not 

 make the smallest difference whether he or you 

 has the right to go into the hole first. Otherwise, 

 of course, the question is a very important one, as 

 sometimes there is not time for more than one to 

 get in before a dog or a boy or both together come 

 up, and then there is bound to be big trouble for 

 those who are left outside. 



What they say is, that we are nasty vulgar 

 interlopers, who have come across the sea from 

 Norway or some other outlandish place (as a 

 matter of fact, we came from India or China 

 some time after the Flood), and that they could not 

 stand our nasty common ways, and so went away. 

 JVe only say that they were here, and that then we 



