GROWING OLD 



241 



so I shall put it in, and you can eat it or leave it, as 

 you like. 



This was the manner of it : I had pegged out 

 a very nice little claim for myself. My outer hall, 

 so to speak, was a little woodshed, where faggots 

 were kept in piles for lighting fires. Nice, clean- 

 smelling stuff firewood is. Under the floor I had 

 made for myself a cosy nest, and I had discovered 

 a way along a hollow wall, down a small precipice, 

 and through a convenient opening, where a great 

 piece of brick had fallen out. This opening brought 

 me on to the shelf of an underground larder, where 

 dainties of all kinds were kept ; and for a long time 

 I was unmolested, and lived in something consider- 

 ably sweeter and softer than clover. 



Eventually some accident — I forget exactly what 

 — led to the discovery of my presence, which was 

 distinctly hard lines, as I had been particularly 

 careful not to help myself clumsily or too fi:-eely, 

 and then traps of all kinds were the order of the 

 day. But in vain were all the cages and other 

 devices spread in the sight of their intended victim. 

 I was not quite a fool, even in those days, and 

 I sternly refused to meddle with anything which 

 could possibly prove to be a trap. And then I met 

 a man who was cleverer than myself, and it was 



16 



