MISCHIEVOUS IMAGINATIONS 89 



elegant door under the branches and straw, and I 

 peeped in. It was all dark, but there was a lovely 

 smell of malt. I did not mind the dark, but the 

 smell of malt made me a trifle suspicious, and I 

 drew back again. However, I had never been 

 trapped in a hole yet, nor was there any record of 

 such a thing in our histories, so I peeped in again. 

 The hole seemed to go down rather suddenly, but 

 holes do drop down pretty straight sometimes, and 

 I had always found it easy enough to walk out 

 again, so in I went, and came down ' flop ' on to 

 the bottom of the jar. It was rather a long way to 

 fall, but 1 was not particularly hurt nor particularly 

 frightened, and I snifled round in the hopes of find- 

 ing the malt. 



Hardly had I begun my investigations, when 

 down came another rat, and then another. We 

 thought it rather a funny place : the sides seemed 

 so smooth, and we did not seem to be getting much 

 nearer to the malt ; but we had not begun to be 

 alarmed, so that when someone else shouted at the 

 hole to know if all was right, we only grunted, ' Of 

 course it is ; come along !' and down came three 

 more. Then we found that we were getting 

 packed rather tight, and were only moving round 

 in a circle, and we tried to get out ; but, of course, 



