AT THE FARM 



111 



discussion, which seemed to me to be a very sensible 

 conclusion. 



The subject of the next conversation that I heard 

 among the straw was of far more personal interest 

 to me ; in fact, it was myself. Billy was either a 

 bit of a coward at that time, or else he was only 

 putting on a pretence of cowardice in order to 

 disguise the better certain evil designs which 

 filled his yoimg heart. He urged upon Betty the 

 argument that it was hardly safe for them to hide 

 themselves in the straw, because rats were liable to 

 bite defenceless children, and he wove a blood- 

 curdling story of how we had been known to fly at 

 people's throats, and how we refused to relax our 

 hold until either the victim or ourselves perished ; 

 the natural conclusion of his argument was that he 

 thought that perhaps he would buy or borrow a 

 trap to catch me. It was his concluding remarks 

 which made me doubt whether his anxiety was 

 quite genuine. Betty was such a friendly little 

 maid that she would never have allowed Billy to 

 attempt to injure ' that jolly rat ' unless her fears 

 had been sufficiently aroused, and she ruled Master 

 Billy with a rod of iron. 



May I pause for a moment at this point to make 

 a confession ? I was once living in a house where 



