MISCHIEVOUS IMAGINATIONS 



93 



great danger of the trap is that there is no bait to 

 act as a warning : you may be alive and well one 

 moment and dead the next. I think, perhaps, 

 that the experience of that terrible morning taught 

 me that, unless you can get absolutely away from 

 man (and then you are liable to starve), the safest 

 place is to be as close to him as possible, provided 

 always that there are not too many of you. A lot 

 of rats make a man angry and vindictive, but the 

 presence of one or two, if only they are reason- 

 ably well behaved, seems to keep any decent 

 sort of man in a good temper, breathing round 

 him an atmosphere of friendliness and good fellow- 

 ship. 



The previous day had been wet and muddy — the 

 sort of day which always seems to awaken in the 

 hearts of some men the desire to catch rats — and I 

 had noticed a two-legged trespasser in our paradise 

 very busy between the stack and the pond. In 

 fact, I was pottering about in the hedge bottom 

 when he came, and for a long time I stayed there, 

 keeping very quiet and watching. But after a 

 while I began to feel terribly sleepy, as I had been 

 out, contrary to my usual habit, for the greater 

 part of the day and during a part of the previous 

 night as well. So I ventured to make a bolt for 



