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THE RAT 



had always taken a jump just as I did my swim, so 

 I set to work and ate whatever I could find nicest 

 on my own side : and that is the advice that I would 

 give you. 



At other times I wondered whether somebody 

 had done it on purpose, and had put things just 

 out of our reach, in order to teach us to try hard 

 to get them for ourselves, and to contrive to grasp 

 even what seemed to be out of reach, just as a bird 

 teaches her young ones to fly by holding some nice 

 insect in her beak on the next branch first, and 

 then on the next tree. But I gave up that idea, 

 because I think that I should learn to swim and to 

 gnaw holes without any teaching, just as you would 

 learn to jump and to climb walls, even if there were 

 glass on the top, without the necessity of there 

 being apples growing on the other side as a bribe. 

 We both do it because we like the excitement and 

 the exercise, even if there is nothing to gain by it. 

 So that reason will not do. 



My own idea is that we can neither of us see 

 what is just under our feet, and that we have to 

 retire to a certain distance in order to obtain a 

 clear view. That would also explain why we are 

 so discontented, why we are never satisfied with 

 what we possess already, why we are always wishing 



