MISCHIEVOUS IMAGINATIONS 



85 



exactly as he wanted it. After that he would eat and 

 drink, before he made himself too dirty, and would 

 then rub his hands all over with earth and mud, to 

 take away the smell of man, and he would take off 

 his boots, in order to avoid the smell of leather, and 

 put on an old pair of stockings, and walk about in 

 the dirt until he smelt of nice clean earth all over. 

 Then he would sally forth full of evil devices. He 

 would have enough of the rat half left about him 

 to know exactly what a rat would be likely to do, 

 and he would set his trap accordingly ; and then he 

 would forget the man half and be the rat half, and 

 would come sniffing about, and wonder where the 

 trap was and what it would do. And sometimes 

 the rat half would be the cleverer, and would find 

 out all about the trap, just as I have often done 

 myself, and sometimes the man half would win the 

 game, and there would be a click and a squeak and 

 the rat half would be caught. And it would not 

 matter in the least, because you could always take 

 yourself out of your own trap, and let yourself go 

 again and have another try. There would be no 

 end of fun to be got out of it, if only Nature had 

 not taken such precious care to make it impossible. 

 Perhaps, if it were not so impossible, it would not 

 sound so amusing. 



