no 



THE RAT 



continued my journey boldly, and crept quietly 

 into the straw, where I remained to listen, and I 

 heard the question of the legality of helping one's 

 self very fully discussed. I gathered from their 

 conversation that Walter Johnson's father called it 

 ' stealing,' and that ' Walter Johnson,' whoever he 

 was, was thereby driven to realize that he was a 

 wicked thief, and that the knowledge hurt his 

 feelings, just as his father's stick hurt his other 

 feelings if he happened to be caught in the act ; 

 and as he simply could not resist an apple when- 

 ever he got the chance of taking one, it seemed 

 that both his finer feelings and his coarser feelings 

 suffered a good deal of pain. No one likes to feel 

 himself to be a thief, any more than he likes to feel 

 himself in the clutches of an irate father, so I was 

 rather sorry for Walter Johnson. 



Billy and Betty were in a much easier position, 

 for it appeared that their own mother had never 

 opened the question at all, but that ' Dad ' had 

 refused them unlimited apples, though only on the 

 medical grounds that the results might be painful. 

 They argued, therefore, that so long as they were 

 modest in their selection, and continued to enjoy 

 good health and freedom from internal pain, the 

 question of robbery need not be brought into the 



