130 



THE RAT 



seen two or three popping quietly across the open 

 space for the greater part of the night. 



Luckily our appetites were very small, or we 

 must have been detected. The fever in our blood 

 seemed to take away the desire for food, and a 

 few blades of the young grass, which was springing 

 up fresh and green in all the hedgerows, or a few 

 stray nibbles at a heap of turnips, seemed to be all 

 that we required. On the other hand, we drank 

 enormously, and sometimes, in our desire for water, 

 we ventured so near a homestead that a chained 

 dog would get a whifF of our scent and bark 

 furiously, while anxious heads were thrust out of 

 windows to see what was the matter. Otherwise 

 we attracted very little attention. All other 

 animals were either frightened at our numbers, or 

 else regarded us as being engaged on a kind of 

 pilgrimage, and therefore not to be molested. We 

 animals are queer creatures in some ways. When 

 one of us falls ill, and behaves in such a way as to 

 attract attention, we generally kill him, because 

 attention is as dangerous to attract as lightning ; 

 but if eccentricity seizes on a whole tribe, the rest 

 look on with something like awe. And so it was 

 that we went on our way quietly and unmolested. 

 We never hurried, and we never stopped to rest. 



