'A CHAPTER OF ACCIDENTS' 



203 



such as you have ; and nothing is wicked unless 

 you can be punished for it, according to our views. 

 We do not count your punishments, because you 

 so often inflict them upon us for nothing at all. 

 You beat us when we are good, and you beat us 

 when we are what you call naughty ; therefore it 

 follows that you may just as well be naughty, if 

 naughtiness means getting into a larder and eating 

 something nice. That is quite a reasonable view to 

 take, is it not ? 



Now for my poor tail — it is not a nice tail to look 

 at, is it ? Rather naked and scaly, and oh ! so short 

 and blunt. And yet there was a time when I took 

 a great deal of trouble over it, when I licked it and 

 cleaned it all the way to its beautiful and graceful 

 tip. I never could quite make out why Nature had 

 made me a present of it until I began to climb ropes 

 and run along narrow ledges, and then 1 realized 

 that it was meant to help me to keep my balance, 

 and I still find it very useful for that purpose, short 

 though it undoubtedly is ; in fact, I do not know 

 what I should do without it. We are always in 

 such a hurry that we are perpetually tumbling down, 

 even with our tails to help us to preserve our equi- 

 librium. You must have heard us at night come 

 down flop on the ceiling. It was only last night 



