68 



THE RAT 



anyone could say that I had broken my promise 

 not to hurt him. What fun it would be ! And 

 then you, for your part, could suddenly become 

 quite tiny, could ungrow, so to speak, and crawl 

 down the holes of the worms among the roots of 

 the daisies, or creep into that delicious corn-field. 

 Only it would be rather awkward for you if you 

 forgot the words of the charm, and were obliged to 

 stay tiny ; it would not matter so much for me. A 

 giant phenomenon is all very well, but a wee, wee 

 mannie would have a very poor time, with all the 

 animals wanting to pay off* old scores. 



However, as this is out of the question at present, 

 I must try to give you some idea of what that corn- 

 field was like. First of all, I was afraid to go in, 

 for fear that there might be savage animals hidden 

 away in those mysterious depths. I dare say that 

 you have felt the same kind of fear when you went 

 into a strange wood. But when I came to think it 

 over, I made up my mind that I could dodge about 

 among the stalks pretty nearly as fast as a weasel, 

 and that at any rate it could not be much more 

 dangerous inside than outside, and so I plucked up 

 my courage and crept in, and very nearly frightened 

 a half -grown rabbit out of his wits by pretending 

 that a weasel was after me, and practising a clever 



