170 



THE RAT 



rated for his clumsiness, when he at last gave up 

 the search and swam back to his young master. 



And so I journeyed on for many days, doing 

 both good and evil — ay, and suffering both — even 

 as the best of us are liable to journey and to suffer, 

 and if I got much enjoyment from the good and 

 small sorrow from the evil — well, I am but a rat, 

 and I have short enough time for joy, and all too 

 short a time for sorrow. And at last I came to 

 what I thought must be the sea, so wide it was 

 and so majestic its waters, but soon I realized that 

 it was only a great and splendid stream — my own 

 stream (for so I called the pleasant waters which 

 I had now left) — my own stream glorified and 

 magnified tenfold. Boatload after boatload of 

 gaily-decked men and women passed before my 

 eyes, old men and maidens, young men and 

 children, until I thought that I must have wandered 

 even to the river of life, which rises in the unknown 

 and empties its waters into the unknowable. And 

 at intervals came strange engines, which snorted 

 and throbbed, and sent the wash of their wake 

 rippling along the banks, while the dwellers in the 

 boats expressed their disapproval with greater or 

 with less directness. It was indeed a merry sight 

 and merry hearing. 



