'BY STREAM AND RIVER' 163 



ate then and there, with the pale moon gleaming on 

 his silver sides. I echoed the last words that he 

 had spoken, ' wholly delicious,' as I munched his 

 oily flesh. I declare that I felt almost poetical. 

 The other half I carried off to my den, and on the 

 following day I found him so good and satisfying 

 that I quite forgot to harry the crayfish in the pool, 

 for which I hope that they were duly thankful. 



Other dwellers by the banks of that stream 

 besides myself were fond of eels. I was pottering 

 about cautiously in the still twilight of a June 

 evening, when I heard a slight noise in the water 

 behind me. Now, noises behind your back are 

 never to be disregarded, so I whisked round pretty 

 quickly, and I saw emerge cautiously from the 

 water what I took at first glance to be the biggest 

 and ugliest rat that I had ever beheld. His nose 

 was blunt and his tail was hairy, and between his 

 jaws wriggled as fine an eel as I ever want to see. 



After one cautious look round, he squatted down 

 among the long grass and began to devour his prey, 

 and as his head was towards me I could see at a 

 glance, from his teeth, that he was no member of 

 my family. His long teeth were not at the front 

 of his mouth like mine, but one on each side, like 

 those of a weasel or a cat. So I knew that he was 



11—2 



