UNREST AND REST 



141 



is generally a stream in the way, whereas when I see 

 some delicious watercresses on the wrong side, I can 

 just flop into the water and swim over to them. 

 When you want some strawberry jam there is very 

 often a locked cupboard- door in the way, and you 

 are obliged to go without and make the best of 

 plain bread-and-butter, while 1, when I want to 

 go into the larder, either creep under the door or 

 find a hole somewhere. And if no other rat has 

 ever made a hole, then I set to work and make one 

 for the benefit of myself and of posterity. 



There is no doubt, I think, of the truth of all 

 that, but I do want to know why it should be so. 

 I have tried walking on the other side of the stream, 

 because I thought that perhaps someone else had 

 been going just in front of me, and had got all the 

 nice things on my side (that is another thing that I 

 should like to ask you about, only I have not 

 time — why there is nearly always someone else in 

 front) but it made no difference at all. When 

 I changed sides, all the nicest things had jumped 

 across to the bank from which I had just come, 

 and were cuddling up against one another there as 

 happily as possible. I was not such a fool as to go 

 on swimming across that stream backwards and 

 forwards all day, only to find that what I wanted 



