MISCHIEVOUS IMAGINATIONS 



79 



notice, so that, instead of making day hideous with 

 your howlings and disturbing my slumbers when 

 you have been smacked for your sins, you may 

 rather remember that you might have been eaten, 

 body and bones, by a justly incensed father, and the 

 sigh of thankfulness will quench your grief. 



My mind is apt to wander, I know. You may 

 have observed how I approach every subject with 

 caution. I can urge two excellent excuses, if you 

 will listen for a moment. You expect your own 

 excuses to be heard, and so you ought, by all the 

 rules of fair-play, to be ready to listen to mine. 

 All objects, such as a piece of cheese, bacon-rind, 

 scattered corn, string, even smells when they are 

 strong enough to be an object, have to be approached 

 with infinite caution. It is well to walk round and 

 round, to approach and then retreat again, to put 

 out a paw and draw it back ; and if this care has to 

 be exercised over an object, why not, pray, over a 

 subject ? That is one excellent excuse. The other 

 is, that no rat, or man either, can do two things at 

 once. Therefore, it is quite impossible for me, who 

 can never wander just where I like, as far as my 

 bodily progress goes, to resist the temptation to let 

 my mind wander about in every possible direction. 

 You find it just the same, I know. When your 



