132 



THE RAT 



out with dogs and sticks, and worried and ham- 

 mered at us, offering rewards even for our tails, 

 until we were brought back to comparative sanity, 

 and realized that it greatly behoved us to shift for 

 ourselves, if we would save ourselves alive. 



So we scattered to the four winds of heaven, 

 as many of us as had escaped with whole skins, 

 and we burrowed for ourselves new habitations 

 wherever we seemed to find a safe place. But 

 many of us had not yet wholly recovered our wits, 

 and made feeble and futile dwelling-places in the 

 middle of fields, whence we were easily dug out 

 and destroyed ; others crowded into farm-buildings 

 in such numbers as were bound to kindle wrath in 

 the hearts of even the kindest of farmers ; while 

 some in whom the taint of madness was still strong 

 made their way up drain-pipes and through cellars 

 into the very houses and cottages of men, where 

 their presence was not tolerated for a moment, so 

 great was the hostility which our strange invasion 

 had evoked. Men even began to talk of the folly 

 of destroying owls, who alone could prevent the 

 repetition of such a plague, and to form societies 

 for the preservation of the birds of prey. So you 

 may well imagine how deeply our pilgrimage had 

 moved the foundations of their doctrines. 



