UNREST AND REST 



133 



More by good luck than good management, for 

 I was still only half sane, I escaped from the 

 general slaughter without even a bite or a scratch. 

 There were such numbers to be killed that some of 

 us were almost bound to escape, and Fortune, as 

 usual, chose her own favourites in her haphazard 

 manner, myself among the number, I am thankful 

 to say ; and, curiously enough, the old blind 

 patriarch, whose feeble steps we had guided thus 

 far, was also one of those who escaped. You 

 would have thought that he must have been the 

 first victim of all. 



I felt it my duty to see him to a place of safety, 

 and in so doing I probably saved my own life also, 

 for if I had had only myself to look after I might 

 easily have lost my head in a strange land, and 

 taken up my dwelling in the very worst place that 

 I could possibly have chosen. But I was bound to 

 be very careful when it was a question of providing 

 a safe home for an old blind companion, and so I 

 set my brains to work while we lodged for a day or 

 two in a cosy hedge-bottom. And it suddenly 

 struck me that my cousins the water-rats lived 

 almost unmolested by man ; also 1 rather thirsted 

 for the quiet seclusion of some sheltered stream, 

 with a broad margin of cool reeds and grasses if 



