140 



THE RAT 



place. Would you have sat down and squealed 

 because you had lost your mammy, or because you 

 did not know where in the world you were ? I do 

 not think so : you would have done pretty much 

 what I did, and that was to poke my nose out of 

 the hole and sniff in the fresh air of a sweet JVIay 

 morning, and then, after one look round to see that 

 there were no enemies within reach, to take a rush 

 and a jump into the clear stream, and swim across 

 into the thick fringe of grass and young sedge on 

 the further side. Then you would have taken a 

 morning drink just to drive away the last fumes of 

 a long sleep, if, like me, you cannot drink while you 

 are swimming. 



I wonder why one always wants to get to the 

 other side. I must run away from my story for a 

 moment : 1 have been so very good lately that you 

 will forgive me just this once, won't you ? I 

 suppose that you always find that the nicest things 

 grow just out of reach on the other side of some- 

 thing, even as I do, so you will perhaps be able to 

 help me to discover why it is. Perhaps it matters 

 less for me than for you, because 1 can generally 

 get there somehow ; I can swim a stream, and I can 

 creep through a hole. When you want to gather 

 some forget-me-nots or some marsh-marigolds, there 



