116 



THE RAT 



know that you are allowed to come down to dessert 

 sometimes, looking very smart and pretty, but 

 feeling rather shy and aw^kward, and glad to get 

 away with an apple to more comfortable quarters. 

 AV^ell, that is exactly how I felt when I went into the 

 apple-room ; it was a kind of treat, but I was glad 

 to run away with an apple. The barn again, Avith 

 its beautiful pile of clean straw and its nice clean 

 floor, was like your drawing-room, into which you 

 are ushered on a wet afternoon or in the early part 

 of the evening to play polite games, but where 

 romping and shouting are disliked — the sort of place 

 where you feel that you must be distinctly on your 

 better behaviour, and where muddy boots, and torn 

 frocks, and breeches with holes in the knees are out 

 of place. 



Our own particular rooms, in which we lived for 

 the greater part of the day, were elsewhere — in the 

 outhouses, the poultry-runs, the cowsheds, the 

 stables, and especially the pigsties. Now, I will 

 defy anybody who has ever seen a pigsty — one 

 of the good old-fashioned kind — to mention a place 

 better suited for a rat to live in — an ordinary rat who 

 likes plenty of mess and litter, and w^ho does not 

 care to be perpetually told to wipe his feet when he 

 comes into a room. I am that particular kind of 



