146 



THE RAT 



house, who thought that robbers had come, so he 

 tried to bolt out of the front-door and swim away 

 out of danger ; but before he could swim two 

 strokes the other dog put his head under water 

 and had him. It was a very clever bit of work, 

 and, as I was not concerned in it, I could admire 

 it from a distance. 



To return to my search for a house. I wandered 

 downstream for the greater part of the day — why 

 I went down in preference to up stream I cannot 

 exactly say, unless it was because the water was all 

 going that way, and so it seemed the easier direc- 

 tion — and at last I came to a place where there was 

 a sort of sluice-gate, which dammed the course of 

 the stream, except where the water came through 

 the cracks in big spurts and little spurts, for it was 

 an old gate, and the folding-doors did not fit very 

 well. 



Below the gate the banks had been boarded in 

 with strong planks, to prevent the stream from 

 washing the earth away whenever the gates were 

 opened. I never saw them opened all the time 

 that I was there, but I suppose that it did happen 

 sometimes, or else w^hy take the trouble to make 

 folding-doors ? I rather wanted to see them open, 

 so as to be able to tell how high the water would 



