198 



THE RAT 



luck and my own good judgment had taken me to 

 pretty nearly the only landing-place. But I did 

 not wait long on the chance of meeting with other 

 survivors. A great dread of the treacherous sea 

 w^as upon me, and I fled inland as if it had been a 

 hungry dog that would leave its bed and pursue me. 



' Strangely enough, the one detail that stands 

 out plainer than any of the others is that, when I 

 ventured at last to stop and clean my fur, the nasty 

 taste of the sea- water gave me quite a strong desire 

 for sickness. I am very fond of a little salt now and 

 then, like most other animals, but the taste of my 

 coat was so nasty that I was obliged to go dirty 

 and sticky for several days. If I could only have 

 found some more rats about I might have made 

 a small fortune, I believe, by letting out the right 

 of cleaning my fur at so much a lick. But, of 

 course, just when I particularly wanted to meet 

 with others of my kind, I could not find a single 

 one, and 1 dare not trust anyone else, so I had 

 to be content with rolling in the grass and rubbing 

 myself against anything that came handy, until the 

 memory of my recent escape had so far faded from 

 my mind as to allow me to clean myself in the 

 proper way with my tongue for about an hour 

 a day. And now, if you please, I am done with 



