244 



THE RAT 



which would have done credit to an express train 

 and went somewhere else. 



I cannot think that so clever an accident as that 

 would have counted as being shot, and I might 

 perhaps have become a new kind of ghost. 



But it is time for me to say a word or two on the 

 question of the year of ghost-life, to which I have 

 alluded more than once. I had better say plainly 

 that I have no very positive proof to offer you of 

 the truth of my statements ; if you are inclined to 

 be sceptical, you will find rats here and there who 

 refuse to accept the idea as even probable, but they 

 are rather held in contempt as reprobates and 

 runagates, and renegades, and you will find a pretty 

 general belief among the more respectable members 

 of our family that we shall enjoy one full year of 

 a sort of shadowy existence as ghosts, provided 

 always that we have kept the rules during our life- 

 time, and have made a decent exit from the stage 

 at the finish. More than that you can hardly 

 expect me to tell you except that we go back to 

 the names of our infancy, and I shall once more 

 become Sammy. Whether I shall regain the tip 

 of my tail and my lost paw I really cannot say. 



Drat it all ! I wish that I were Sammy again, 

 you know, instead of Mr. Samuel. I would gladly 



