88 



THE RAT 



using the pricker as a small chisel, and the marks 

 which it made were just like those which the teeth of 

 a rat would have left. And, after a long time, he had 

 made a nice round hole, just big enough for a full- 

 grown rat to pass through, and he smoothed away 

 the edges very carefully, for he was very particular 

 about little things, which is the only way to catch 

 rats. Then he took the jar out of doors to a 

 place where the rats came out in the evening, and 

 dug out the earth, and buried the jar right down, 

 so that the surface of the ground was just on a 

 level with the hole which he had chopped ; and he 

 covered over the top of the jar with branches and 

 straw, and scattered a little corn outside, and went 

 away singing to himself. He must have rubbed 

 his hands well in the earth before he began, for I 

 could smell nothing. 



Yes, I was the foolish rat who found it first 

 when we came out in the evening. The others, 

 whom I had allowed to go out before me, accord- 

 ing to my rule, had begun to eat the corn, and, 

 seeing that there was no trap under the corn, I 

 trotted up and got my share. Then I saw the 

 hole, evidently made by the teeth of rats (I saw the 

 marks of the pricker, you know), and I wondered 

 who had made such a nice cosy house, with an 



