234 



THE RAT 



out, if you are at all fond of worms. It is not a 

 fair argument to say that you are not fond of 

 worms ; I wish to suppose that you might be. 



At any rate, I have described pretty fairly what 

 a person with only a straight eye would see, and 

 it is quite possible that he might say very unkind 

 things about thrushes. I know very well that if a 

 rat did such a thing there would be a pretty outcry, 

 and it does not seem to me to be fair that, just 

 because a thrush has a pretty spotty stomach and 

 can sing a good song, he should never have un- 

 kind things said about him. 



Xow, I do not wish to argue that something 

 must kill worms, in order to moderate the increase 

 of them, though that would be true enough; nor, 

 again, do I wdsh to argue that it is the worms' own 

 fault for not having learnt to die quickly and to 

 come to pieces with less bother, though there would 

 be some truth in that also. What I wish to urge 

 upon you is that, instead of seeing only the cruelty 

 of the process, you should rather be able to read 

 the tender anxiety in the old bird's mind that his 

 nest full of clamorous children should have plenty 

 of good food, and food that is well broken up and 

 is easy to digest. I do not suppose that the thrush 

 enjoys bashing the worm about and torturing it ; 



