THE RAT 



adventures are all rather alike. Put in lots of 

 hawks and owls, and sticks and traps and catapults, 

 and boys and dogs — put them in almost every day, 

 and several times on some days, and then fill up 

 the intervals with corn and cheese, and scraps of 

 meat and vegetables, and butter and milk, and you 

 will not be far wrong. Don't put in much sorrow 

 or lamentation, for we are never sorry for very long, 

 either for what we have done to others, or for what 

 others have done to us. We are nearly always 

 happy and cheerful ; we enjoy poking about at night 

 on a rubbish heap, or digging with our paws in 

 order to get at some luxurious dainty ; we enjoy 

 burrowing into stacks and under w^alls and doors ; 

 we enjoy a real good fight, and we enjoy a race, 

 even if the race be with a dog, so long as w^e can 

 just manage to win by a short tail. Most people 

 win by heads, but we win by tails ; it is one of our 

 peculiarities. I am not sure that we do not even 

 enjoy it, for a while, when w^e lose, but I cannot be 

 sure of that, for none of the rats who have lost their 

 race have ever breath enough to tell the tale. At 

 any rate, it is nicer to suppose that they enjoyed it. 

 Most of all, perhaps, do we enjoy stealing, which 

 sounds wicked, but is not so really, because, you 

 see, we have no laws and prisons and policemen, 



