192 



THE RAT 



of the past. Take my advice and don't cross the 

 herring-pond ; but if you are compelled to do so 

 take the next liner back, as I did, and return to the 

 roomy and placid comfort of your own country. 



' I must now tell you about my last voyage, which 

 will also explain to you my presence here so far 

 inland, to which you were rude enough to allude in 

 a joking way. The fact is that I have had about 

 enough of the sea ; its ways are a little too playful 

 for me, much as I still love it. One has to draw the 

 line somewhere, and I draw it at the events which 

 I am now about to relate. 



' She was an old tub of a boat, and she just 

 swarmed with rats ; we occupied every available 

 nook and corner. Some people think that rats 

 never embark on a ship that is going to sink. 

 There ! I have let the cat out of the bag at the 

 very beginning ! You need not jump in that way 

 just because I mentioned the word "cat." I apolo- 

 gize ; I meant her to stay in the bag till the very 

 end of the story, but, now that she is fairly out, I 

 may as well confess at once that it is a tale of ship- 

 wreck upon which I am embarked. But the rats 

 were very far from leaving the sinking ship " when 

 she made ready to sail away on her last voyage, so 

 those people must be wrong who talk of sailors 



