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| author | Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> | 2025-10-15 02:48:21 -0700 |
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| committer | Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> | 2025-10-15 02:48:21 -0700 |
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diff --git a/29863-h/29863-h.htm b/29863-h/29863-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..042acbe --- /dev/null +++ b/29863-h/29863-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,4688 @@ +<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"> +<html> +<head> +<meta http-equiv = "Content-Type" content = "text/html; charset=UTF-8"> +<title>The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Rambles of a Rat, by A. L. O. E.</title> +<style type = "text/css"> + +/* standard styles */ + +body {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%;} + +div.titlepage, div.page {margin-top: 4em; margin-bottom: 4em;} + +hr {width: 80%; margin-top: 1em; margin-bottom: 1em; +text-align: center;} +hr.mid {width: 40%;} +hr.small {width: 30%;} + +table.toc a {text-decoration: none;} +a.tag {text-decoration: none; vertical-align: .3em; font-size: 80%; +padding-left: .25em; line-height: .1em;} + +h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6 {text-align: center; font-style: normal; +font-weight: normal; line-height: 1.5; margin-top: 2em; +margin-bottom: 1em;} + +h1 {font-size: 250%;} +h1.pg {text-align: center; font-style: normal; + font-weight: bold; line-height: 1; margin-top: 0em; + font-size: 190%; + margin-bottom: 0em;} +h2 {font-size: 200%;} +div.titlepage h2 {margin-top: .5em; margin-bottom: .5em;} +h2 span.head5 {font-size: 67%;} +h2 span.head6 {font-size: 50%;} +h3 {font-size: 150%;} +h3.pg {text-align: center; font-style: normal; + font-weight: bold; line-height: 1; margin-top: 0em; + font-size: 110%; } +div.maintext h3 {font-size: 112%; margin-top: 3em; margin-bottom: 1em;} +h3 span.subhead {font-size: 67%; line-height: 2em; letter-spacing: .2em; +padding-left: .2em;} +h4 {font-size: 120%;} +h5 {font-size: 100%;} +div.titlepage h5 {margin-top: .5em; margin-bottom: .5em;} +div.endnote h4, div.endnote h5 {margin-top: 1em; font-weight: bold;} +h6 {font-size: 85%;} +div.titlepage h6 {margin-top: .5em; margin-bottom: 1em;} + +p {margin-top: .5em; margin-bottom: 0em; line-height: 1.2;} + +p.illustration {text-align: center; margin-top: 1em; +margin-bottom: 1.5em;} +p.caption {text-align: center; margin-top: 1em; margin-bottom: 1em; +font-size: 88%;} + +div.hanging {margin: .5em 2em;} +div.hanging p {margin-top: .25em; margin-left: 1em; text-indent: -1em;} + +div.verse {margin: .5em 2em;} +div.verse p {margin-top: 0; margin-left: 4em; text-indent: -4em;} +div.verse p.indent {margin-left: 5em;} + +p.center {text-align: center;} +p.right {text-align: right;} + +/* footnotes */ + +p.footnote, div.footnote {margin: 2em; font-size: 92%;} + + +/* tables */ + +table {margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-top: 1em; +margin-bottom: 1em; font-size: inherit; font-family: inherit;} + +td {vertical-align: top; text-align: left; padding: .1em;} + +td.right, td.number {text-align: right;} + +table.toc td {padding: .25em .5em;} +table.toc td.number {vertical-align: bottom;} + + +/* conditional */ +table p {margin-top: 0em; margin-left: 2em; text-indent: -2em; +line-height: normal;} + + +/* text formatting */ + +span.smallcaps, span.firstword {font-variant: small-caps;} + +.smaller {font-size: 88%;} +.larger {font-size: 110%;} +.extended {letter-spacing: 0.2em; margin-right: -.2em;} +.sans {font-family: sans-serif;} + + +/* my additions */ + +/* correction popup */ + +ins.correction {text-decoration: none; border-bottom: thin dotted red;} + +/* page number */ + +span.pagenum {position: absolute; right: 2%; font-size: 90%; +font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-align: right; +text-indent: 0em;} + +/* Transcriber's Note */ + +.mynote {background-color: #DDE; color: #000; +font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 90%;} + +div.mynote {margin: 1em 5%; padding: .5em 1em 1em;} +p.mynote {margin: 1em 5%; padding: 1em;} +div.mynote a {text-decoration: none;} + +div.endnote {padding: .5em 1em 1em; margin: 1em; border: 3px ridge #A9F; +font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 90%;} + + hr.full { width: 100%; + height: 5px; } + pre {font-size: 85%; } +</style> +</head> +<body> +<h1 class="pg">The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Rambles of a Rat, by A. L. O. E.</h1> +<pre> +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at <a href = "http://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a></pre> +<p>Title: The Rambles of a Rat</p> +<p>Author: A. L. O. E.</p> +<p>Release Date: August 30, 2009 [eBook #29863]</p> +<p>Language: English</p> +<p>Character set encoding: UTF-8</p> +<p>***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE RAMBLES OF A RAT***</p> +<br><br><center><h3 class="pg">E-text prepared by Louise Hope</h3></center><br><br> +<p> </p> + +<div class = "mynote"> +<p><a name = "start" id = "start">This text</a> uses UTF-8 (Unicode) +file encoding. If the apostrophes and quotation marks in this paragraph +appear as garbage, you may have an incompatible browser or unavailable +fonts. First, make sure that your browser’s “character set” or “file +encoding” is set to Unicode (UTF-8). You may also need to change the +default font.</p> + +<p>Typographical errors are shown in the text with <ins class = +"correction" title = "like this">mouse-hover popups</ins>. The word +“invisible” means that the letter or punctuation mark is absent, but +there is an appropriately sized empty space. The inconsistent handling +of nested quotes, with single ‘’ or double “” quotation marks for the +inner quote, is unchanged. Where two closing quotation marks are +expected, only one was printed.</p> + +<p class = "center"> +<a href = "#preface">Preface</a><br> +<a href = "#rambles">The Rambles of a Rat</a><br> +<a href = "#endnote">Transcriber’s Note</a></p> + +</div> +<p> </p> +<hr class="full" noshade> +<p> </p> + +<div class = "titlepage"> + +<p class = "illustration"> +<img src = "images/halftitle.png" width = "503" height = "186" +alt = "THE RAMBLES OF A RAT." title = "THE RAMBLES OF A RAT."></p> + +</div> + +<hr class = "mid"> + +<div class = "titlepage"> + +<p class = "illustration"> +<img src = "images/frontis.png" width = "395" height = "566" +alt = "Billy looks at three rats"></p> + +<p class = "caption"> +POORER THAN RATS.</p> + +<p class = "caption"> +“The old blind rat had a bit of stick in its mouth, and the pretty<br> +black rat took the other end in his teeth.”—Page 25.</p> + +</div> + +<hr class = "mid"> + +<div class = "titlepage"> + +<h2 class = "sans"> +<span class = "head6">THE</span><br> +RAMBLES OF A RAT.<br> +<span class = "head6">BY</span><br> +<span class = "head5">A. L. O. E.</span></h2> + +<p class = "illustration"> +<img src = "images/titlepage.png" width = "387" height = "486" +alt = "Oddity greets Ratto and Whiskerandos"></p> + +<p class = "caption"> +A NEW KIND OF WATCHDOG.</p> + +<p class = "caption"> +“Whiskerandos looked surprised at the unexpected defiance;<br> +but my feelings of amazement can scarcely be conceived<br> +when I recognised the dumpy form, blunt head, and piebald skin,<br> +of my lost brother Oddity.”—Page 150.</p> + +<p class = "illustration"> +<img src = "images/decline.png" width = "123" height = "10" +alt = "----"></p> + +<h6>T. NELSON AND SONS, LONDON, EDINBURGH, AND NEW YORK.</h6> + +</div> + +<hr class = "mid"> + +<div class = "titlepage"> + +<p class = "illustration"> +<img src = "images/title2.png" width = "454" height = "218" +alt = "THE RAMBLES OF A RAT" title = "THE RAMBLES OF A RAT"></p> + +<h5><i>By</i></h5> + +<h5><i>A. L. O. E.</i>,<br> +<i>Author of “The Giant-killer,” “Pride and his Prisoners,”<br> +&c. &c.</i></h5> + +<p> </p> + +<p class = "illustration"> +<img src = "images/title2dec.png" width = "154" height = "100" +alt = "decoration"></p> + +<p> </p> + +<h5><span class = "larger extended">LONDON:</span><br> +<span class = "extended">T. NELSON AND SONS, PATERNOSTER ROW;</span><br> +<span class = "smaller">EDINBURGH; AND NEW YORK.</span></h5> + +<hr class = "small"> + +<h5>1864.</h5> + +</div> + +<div class = "maintext"> + +<div class = "page"> + +<span class = "pagenum">v</span> +<p class = "illustration"> +<a name = "preface" id = "preface"> +<img src = "images/preface.png" width = "369" height = "166" +alt = "PREFACE" title = "PREFACE"></a></p> + +<p><span class = "firstword">Let</span> not my readers suppose that in +writing <span class = "smallcaps">The Rambles of a Rat</span> I have +simply been blowing bubbles of fancy for their amusement, to divert them +during an idle hour. Like the hollow glass balls which children delight +in, my bubbles of fancy have something solid within them,—facts +are enclosed in my fiction. I have indeed made rats talk, feel, and +reflect, as those little creatures certainly never did; but the courage, +presence of mind, fidelity, and kindness, which I have attributed to my +heroes, have been shown by real rats. Such adventures as I have +described have actually happened to them, unless they be those recorded +in the 19th chapter, for which I have no authority. For my anecdotes of +this much-despised race I am principally indebted to an interesting +article +<span class = "pagenum">vi</span> +on the subject which appeared in the “Quarterly Review.”</p> + +<p>I would suggest to my readers how wide and delightful a field of +knowledge natural history must open to all, when there is so much to +interest and admire even in those animals which we usually regard with +contempt and disgust. The examination of the wondrous works of nature is +a study elevating as well as delightful; for the more deeply we search +into the wonders around us, the more clearly we discover the wisdom +which is displayed even in the lowest forms of creation!</p> + +<p class = "right">A. L. O. E.</p> + +<p class = "illustration"> +<img src = "images/dec_vi.png" width = "124" height = "102" +alt = "decoration"></p> + +</div> + +<hr class = "mid"> + +<div class = "page"> + +<span class = "pagenum">vii</span> + +<p class = "illustration"> +<a name = "contents" id = "contents"> +<img src = "images/contents.png" width = "338" height = "160" +alt = "CONTENTS" title = "CONTENTS"></a></p> + +<table class = "toc"> +<tr> +<td class = "right smaller">Chap. +</td> +<td class = "number smaller" colspan = "2">Page.</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class = "right"><a href = "#chapI">I.</a></td> +<td>The Family of Rats</td> +<td class = "number">9</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class = "right"><a href = "#chapII">II.</a></td> +<td>A Clap-trap Discovery</td> +<td class = "number">15</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class = "right"><a href = "#chapIII">III.</a></td> +<td>Poorer than Rats</td> +<td class = "number">19</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class = "right"><a href = "#chapIV">IV.</a></td> +<td>How I made a Friend</td> +<td class = "number">26</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class = "right"><a href = "#chapV">V.</a></td> +<td>How Bob met with an Adventure</td> +<td class = "number">33</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class = "right"><a href = "#chapVI">VI.</a></td> +<td>How I visited the Zoological Gardens</td> +<td class = "number">38</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class = "right"><a href = "#chapVII">VII.</a></td> +<td>Finding Relations</td> +<td class = "number">43</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class = "right"><a href = "#chapVIII">VIII.</a></td> +<td>How I heard of Old Neighbours</td> +<td class = "number">51</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class = "right"><a href = "#chapIX">IX.</a></td> +<td>How we found a Feast</td> +<td class = "number">59</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class = "right"><a href = "#chapX">X.</a></td> +<td>The want of a Dentist</td> +<td class = "number">67</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class = "right"><a href = "#chapXI">XI.</a></td> +<td>A Removal</td> +<td class = "number">74</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class = "right"><a href = "#chapXII">XII.</a></td> +<td>A New Road to Fame</td> +<td class = "number">79</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class = "right"><a href = "#chapXIII">XIII.</a></td> +<td>How I set out on my Voyage</td> +<td class = "number">86</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class = "right"><a href = "#chapXIV">XIV.</a></td> +<td>A Terrible Word</td> +<td class = "number">94</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class = "right"><a href = "#chapXV">XV.</a></td> +<td>First View of St. Petersburg</td> +<td class = "number">103</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class = "right"><a href = "#chapXVI">XVI.</a></td> +<td>A Russian Kitchen</td> +<td class = "number">109</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class = "right"><a href = "#chapXVII">XVII.</a></td> +<td>A Ramble over St. Petersburg</td> +<td class = "number">118</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class = "right"> +<span class = "pagenum">viii</span> +<a href = "#chapXVIII">XVIII.</a></td> +<td>How we were Transported</td> +<td class = "number">125</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class = "right"><a href = "#chapXIX">XIX.</a></td> +<td>A Storm and its Consequences</td> +<td class = "number">132</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class = "right"><a href = "#chapXX">XX.</a></td> +<td>Catch him—Dead or Alive!</td> +<td class = "number">137</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class = "right"><a href = "#chapXXI">XXI.</a></td> +<td>A new kind of Watch-dog</td> +<td class = "number">146</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class = "right"><a href = "#chapXXII">XXII.</a></td> +<td>The Farmer and his Bride</td> +<td class = "number">153</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class = "right"><a href = "#chapXXIII">XXIII.</a></td> +<td>A Peep through the Roses</td> +<td class = "number">163</td> +</tr> +</table> + +<p class = "illustration"> +<img src = "images/dec_viii.png" width = "130" height = "85" +alt = "decoration"></p> + +</div> + +<hr class = "mid"> + +<span class = "pagenum">9</span> + +<p class = "illustration"> +<img src = "images/aloe.png" width = "345" height = "130" +alt = "A L O E" title = "A L O E"></p> + + +<h2><a name = "rambles" id = "rambles"> +THE RAMBLES OF A RAT.</a></h2> + +<p class = "illustration"> +<img src = "images/decline.png" width = "123" height = "10" +alt = "----"></p> + +<h3><a name = "chapI" id = "chapI"> +CHAPTER I.</a><br> +<span class = "subhead">THE FAMILY OF RATS.</span></h3> + + +<p><span class = "firstword">My</span> very earliest recollection is of +running about in a shed adjoining a large warehouse, somewhere in the +neighbourhood of Poplar, and close to the River Thames, which +thereabouts is certainly no silver stream.</p> + +<p>A merry life we led of it in that shed, my seven brothers and I! +It was a sort of palace of rubbish, a mansion of odds and ends, where +rats might frolic and gambol, and play at hide-and-seek, to their +hearts’ content. We had nibbled a nice little way into the warehouse +above mentioned; and there, every night, we feasted at our ease, growing +as sleek and plump as any rats in the United Kingdom.</p> + +<p>We were of an ancient race of British +<span class = "pagenum">10</span> +rats, my seven brothers and I. It is said that our ancestors came +over with the Conqueror, William; and we are not a little proud of our +Norman descent. Our smaller forms, sleek black coats, long tails, and +fine large ears, make us altogether distinct from the Norwegian brown +rat, on which we look with—I was going to say with contempt, but I +rather think that it is quite another feeling, and one to which neither +rats nor men generally like to plead guilty. I know that we do not +usually choose to keep company with them; but whether it be because +their forms are coarser, their manners less refined, and their pedigree +not so long, or whether it be because they sometimes have a fancy to +nibble off the ears of their neighbours, or, when their appetite is +uncommonly sharp, make a meal of their Norman cousins, we need not +particularly inquire.</p> + +<p>I said that I and my seven brothers were black rats; but I ought to +make one exception. The youngest of the family was piebald—a +curious peculiarity, which I never noticed in any other of our race. +Yes, he was piebald; and not only had he this misfortune, +<span class = "pagenum">11</span> +but he was the clumsiest and most ill-shaped rat that ever nibbled a +candle-end! Now, this was no fault of his, and certainly was no reason +why he should have been despised by his more fortunate brothers. Man, of +course, as a superior creature, would only look with kindness and pity +upon a companion so unhappy as to have personal defects. He would never +ridicule a condition which might have been his own, nor find a subject +for merriment in that which to another was a cause of annoyance; but we +were only inconsiderate young rats, and there was no end to our jokes on +our piebald comrade. “Oddity,” “Guinea-pig,” “Old Spotty,” and +“Frightful”—such were the names which we gave him. The first was +that by which he was best known, and the only one to which he chose to +answer. But he was a good-humoured fellow, poor Oddity, and bore our +rudeness with patience and temper. He pursued the plan which I would +recommend to all rats in his position: he joined the mirth which his own +appearance raised; and when we made merry at the awkward manner in which +he waddled after his more light-footed companions, he never took +<span class = "pagenum">12</span> +it amiss, nor retired into a corner of the shed to sulk, amidst +rope-ends and bits of rusty iron.</p> + +<p>I have said that we had merry nights in the warehouse. Often has the +moon looked in through the dull, many-paned windows, lighting our +revels; though we cared little for light, our delicate feelers almost +supplying the place of eyes. But one night above all nights I +remember!</p> + +<p>There had been a great deal of moving about in the warehouse during +the day, running of trucks, and rolling of casks. Brisk, the liveliest +of my brothers, had sat watching in a hole from noon until dusk, and now +hurried through our little passage into the shed, where we were all +nestling behind some old canvass. He brought us news of a coming +feast.</p> + +<p>“A ship has arrived from India,” said he, “and we’ll have a glance at +the cargo. They’ve been busy stowing it away next door. There’s +rice—”</p> + +<p>The brotherhood of rats whisked their tails for joy!</p> + +<p>“Sugar—”</p> + +<span class = "pagenum">13</span> +<p>There was a universal squeak of approbation.</p> + +<p>“Indigo—”</p> + +<p>“That’s nothing but a blue dye obtained from a plant,” observed +Furry, an old, blind rat, who in his days had travelled far, and seen +much of the world, and had reflected upon what he had viewed far more +than is common with a rat. Indeed, he passed amongst us for a +philosopher, and I had learnt not a little from his experience; for he +delighted in talking over his travels, and but for a little testiness of +temper, would have been a very agreeable companion. He very frequently +joined our party; indeed, his infirmities obliged him to do so, as he +could not have lived without assistance. But I must now return to Brisk, +and his catalogue of the cargo.</p> + +<p>“Opium—”</p> + +<p>“The juice of the white poppy,” said our aged friend, who had a taste +for general information. “I’ve seen it produce strange effects when +eaten in large quantities by men.”</p> + +<p>“What effects?” said I. I was a very inquisitive rat, and especially +curious about all +<span class = "pagenum">14</span> +that related to the large creatures upon two legs, called Man, whom I +believed to be as much wiser as they are stronger than the race of Mus, +to which I belong.</p> + +<p>“Why, opium makes men first wild and bold, so that they will rush +into danger or run into folly, quarrel with their friends and fight +their foes, laugh and dance, and be merry they know not why. Then they +grow sleepy, and though their lives might depend on it, not a step would +they stir. Then, when they awake from their unnatural sleep, their +bodies are cold, their heads heavy; they feel sick, and faint, and sad! +And if this should happen day after day, at last the strong grows weak +and the healthy ill, the flesh goes from the bones and the life from the +eyes, and the whole man becomes like some old, empty hulk, whose timbers +will hardly hold together! And all this from eating opium!”</p> + +<p>“Ugh!” exclaimed Brisk; “leave opium to man; it is a great deal too +bad for rats!”</p> + + + + +<span class = "pagenum">15</span> +<h3><a name = "chapII" id = "chapII"> +CHAPTER II.</a><br> +<span class = "subhead">A CLAP-TRAP DISCOVERY.</span></h3> + + +<p><span class = "firstword">With</span> eager haste we scrambled into +the warehouse, Furry, as usual, remaining behind on account of his +infirmities. We were almost too impatient to wait till the men within +should have finished their work, till the doors should be shut and +locked, and the place left in quiet for us.</p> + +<p>I soon found out what was to me a singular curiosity—a tooth; I +felt certain that it was a tooth; but it was twice as long as any rat, +counting from the tip of his nose to the end of his tail! I could not +help wondering in my mind to what huge animal it could ever have +belonged.</p> + +<p>“Isn’t that called ivory?” said Oddity, as he waddled past me.</p> + +<p>I felt inexpressible pleasure in gnawing and nibbling at the huge +tusk, and polishing my sharp teeth upon it. “How I should like to see +the enormous rat that could have carried such a tusk!” I exclaimed. “Oh! +how I +<span class = "pagenum">16</span> +should delight in travelling and seeing the world!”</p> + +<p>“You’ve something to see worth the seeing, without travelling far!” +cried Brisk. “Such a fragrance of cheese as there is yonder! Why, Ratto, +its delicious scent reaches us even here!”</p> + +<p>I was so busy with my tusk and my reflections, that I scarcely looked +up; but Oddity turned his eyes eagerly towards the spot.</p> + +<p>“Now, I propose that we have a race to the place!” cried Brisk; “and +he who gets first shall have his pick of the feast! Leave Ratto to his +old bone! Here are seven of us: now for it; once, twice, thrice, and +away!”</p> + +<p>Off they scampered helter-skelter, all my seven brothers, awkward +heavy Oddity, as usual, in the rear. He had often been laughed at for +his slowness, but this time it was well for him that he was slow! On +rushed the six foremost, almost together, scrambling one over another in +their haste; they disappeared into what looked like a dark hole, and +then—alas! alas! what a terrible squeaking!</p> + +<p>Poor unhappy brothers! all caught in a +<span class = "pagenum">17</span> +trap! All at the mercy of their cruel enemy, man! I ran to the spot in a +terrible fright. Nothing of my six companions could I see; but Oddity, +with a very disconsolate look, was staring at the drop of the trap. His +had been a very narrow escape,—it had grazed his ugly nose as it +fell!</p> + +<p>This is a very melancholy part of my story, and I will hasten over it +as fast as I can. In vain the poor captive rats tried to gnaw their way +to freedom from within, while Oddity and I nibbled from without. There +was something which defied even our sharp little teeth, and all our +efforts were in vain. My poor brothers could not touch the fatal feast +which had lured them to their ruin! They passed a miserable night, and +were every one carried off in a bag to be worried by dogs in the +morning!</p> + +<p>“Cruel, wicked man!” I exclaimed, as with my piebald companion I +sought my old shelter behind the canvass in our shed. My exclamation was +overheard by old Furry.</p> + +<p>“Cruel, wicked man!” he repeated, but in a different tone from mine; +“well, I think that even when setting a trap to catch inexperienced +<span class = "pagenum">18</span> +rats, man may have something to say for himself. I have often noticed +the big creatures at work, and much they labour, and hard they toil, and +we can’t expect them to be willing to take so much trouble to collect +dainties just to feast us! Those who live on the property of others, +like rats, have no right to expect civil treatment!”</p> + +<p>“Are there any creatures that lay traps for man?” said I, in the +bitterness of my spirit almost hoping that there might be.</p> + +<p>“As well as I can understand,” replied Furry, “man himself lays traps +for man. I have seen several of these traps. They are large, and +generally built of brick, with a board and gilt letters in front. They +are baited with a certain drink, which has effects something like opium, +which destroys slowly but surely those who give themselves up recklessly +to its enjoyment.”</p> + +<p>“Well,” cried Oddity, “having once seen what comes of running into a +trap, I, for one, shall be always on my guard against them, and am +never likely to be caught in that way. I suppose that it is the same +with man. When he sees that one or two of his companions are +<span class = "pagenum">19</span> +lost by the big man-trap, he takes good care never to go near it +himself.”</p> + +<p>“Not a whit!” exclaimed Furry, with a scornful whisk of his tail. +“They like the bait, though they know its effects quite well. They walk +with open eyes into the great man-trap, they hasten merrily into the +great man-trap, when the gas-lights are flaring, and the spirits +flowing, and the sound of laughter and jesting is heard within! They +know that they are going the straight, direct way to be worried by +sickness, poverty, and shame, (what these are I never heard clearly +explained, but I have gathered that they are great enemies of man, who +are always waiting at the door of the great man-trap,) and yet they go +gaily to their ruin!”</p> + +<p>“So this is your account of the wise creature man!” I exclaimed; “he +is a great deal more foolish than any rat!”</p> + + + + +<span class = "pagenum">20</span> +<h3><a name = "chapIII" id = "chapIII"> +CHAPTER III.</a><br> +<span class = "subhead">POORER THAN RATS.</span></h3> + + +<p><span class = "firstword">We</span> had not our shed always to +ourselves. One cold evening in autumn, when there was a sharp east wind, +and a drizzling rain, two human creatures came into the place and +cowered down in a corner of our shed. I call them human creatures, for +they certainly were not men; they were so different from the tall +powerful fellows whom I had occasionally seen at their work in the +warehouse. These were much smaller, and so thin that their bones seemed +almost ready to break through the skin. Their hair hung in long loose +masses about their ears. They had nothing on their feet to protect them +from the stones, and one of them had a hurt upon his heel, which looked +red and inflamed.</p> + +<p>I found that these were young human beings, neglected and uncared +for, as young rats would not have been. We were at first afraid of them, +and only peered out curiously upon them from our holes and +hiding-places; but when, gathering courage, we ventured to +<span class = "pagenum">21</span> +come forward, we seemed to frighten them as much as they had frightened +us.</p> + +<p>“Look there—there, Bob!” screamed the younger child, clinging +more closely to his brother.</p> + +<p>“Them bees rats,” said the other one more quietly. His poor thin +little face looked as if the life and spirit had been so starved out of +it, that he could not be much astonished at anything.</p> + +<p>“I don’t like staying here, Bob, amongst the rats!” cried the +terrified little one, attempting to pull his brother towards the +entrance by the sleeve of his jacket. The wretched rag gave way even +under his weak pull, and another rent was added to the many by which the +cold crept in through the poor boy’s tattered dress. “I won’t stay +here; let us go, let us go!”</p> + +<p>“We’ve no-wheres to go to,” replied Bob, in the same dull, lifeless +tone. “Never you mind the rats, Billy, them won’t hurt you,” he +added.</p> + +<p>Hurt him! not we! If ever I felt pity it was for those ragged little +urchins. We were well-fed, but they were hungry; Nature had +<span class = "pagenum">22</span> +given us sleek warm coats, but they trembled with cold. It was very +clear that it was much harder to them to support life than if they had +been rats. I wondered if in this great city there were many such +helpless children, and if there were none to care for them!</p> + +<p>“I say, Ratto,” observed Oddity, licking his soft coat till the +beautiful polish upon it made one almost forget its ugly colour, “’tis a +pity that these children are so dirty; but may be they are not so +particular about such matters as we rats.”</p> + +<p>In time a sort of acquaintance grew up between me and the ragged +boys. We ceased to fear each other, and I would venture almost close to +Billy’s thin little hand when he had a crust of bread to eat, for he +always broke off a little bit for me. The poor little fellow was +crippled and lame, so he rarely left the shed. Bob often went out in the +morning, and returned when it was growing dark, sometimes with food, and +sometimes without it; but whenever he had anything to eat, he always +shared it with his little lame brother. I see them now, crouched close +up together for the sake of warmth. Sometimes Billy cried from +<span class = "pagenum">23</span> +hunger and cold, and his tears made long lines down his grimy face. Bob +never cried, he suffered quite quietly; he patted his little brother’s +shaggy head, and spoke kindly to him, in his dull, cheerless way. I felt +more sorry for him than for Billy.</p> + +<p>The little one was the more talkative of the two. Perhaps he was more +lively in his nature; or perhaps, from having been a shorter time in a +world of sorrow, he had not learned its sad lessons so well. I certainly +never heard him laugh but once, and then it was when Oddity, who was +more shy than I, ventured for the first time since Billy’s coming +to cross the shed.</p> + +<p>“Oh! look—look, Bob! what a funny rat! what a beauty rat!” he +cried, clapping his bony hands together with childish glee.</p> + +<p>It was comical to see the expression on Oddity’s blunt face on +hearing this unexpected compliment, perhaps the first that he had ever +received in his life. It was enough to have turned the head of a less +sober rat; but he, honest fellow, only lifted up his snub nose with a +sort of bull-dog look, which seemed to say, “Well, there’s no accounting +for taste.”</p> + +<span class = "pagenum">24</span> +<p>“Bob,” said little Billy one evening, with more animation than usual, +“I’se been a-watching the rats, and I saw—only think what I +saw!”</p> + +<p>“Eh, what did ye see?” replied Bob, drowsily, rubbing his eyes with +the back of his hand. He looked very hungry and tired.</p> + +<p>“I was a-watching for the fat spotted one which ran across yesterday, +when out came creeping, creeping, two others”—the child with his +fingers on the floor suited his action to his words,—“and one had +some white on its back; it looked old and weak; and Bob, I saw as how it +was blind.”</p> + +<p>“A blind rat!” cried Bob; “’twould soon starve, I take it.”</p> + +<p>“But there was the other rat at its side, with such shining eyes, and +such a sharp little nose!” I plead guilty to vanity; I could not hear +such a description of myself with Oddity’s sober composure. “And the old +blind rat had a little bit of stick in its mouth, just as the blind man +in the lane has a stick in his hand, and the pretty black rat took the +other end in his teeth, and so pulled the old un on his way.”</p> + +<span class = "pagenum">25</span> +<p>“I’se never heard of rats doing that afore,” said Bob.</p> + +<p>“That’s not all that I saw about ’em,” continued Billy. “Out comes +the funny spotted rat from its hole; so I keeps very quiet, not to +frighten it away. And it pattered up to the place where I put the little +crumbs; and what do you think as it did?”</p> + +<p>“Ate them,” was Bob’s quiet reply.</p> + +<p>“No, but it didn’t though!” cried Billy, triumphantly; “it pushed +them towards the old blind rat. Neither the black un nor the spotted un +ate up one crumb; they left ’em all for the poor blind rat! Now wasn’t +them famous little fellows!”</p> + +<p>“So rats help one another,” said Bob. He did not speak more; but as +he leant back his head, and looked straight up at the roof of the shed, +(there was a great hole in it which the stars shone through, and now and +then a big drop of water from the top came plash, plash, on the muddy +floor below,) he looked up, I say, and I wonder whether he was thinking +the same thing as I was at that moment: “Rats help one another; do none +but human beings leave their fellow-creatures to perish!”</p> + + + + +<span class = "pagenum">26</span> +<h3><a name = "chapIV" id = "chapIV"> +CHAPTER IV.</a><br> +<span class = "subhead">HOW I MADE A FRIEND.</span></h3> + + +<p><span class = "firstword">I always</span> ate my supper in the +warehouse, but I need hardly say that Oddity and I carefully avoided the +spot where the tragedy of our six brothers had occurred. We were by no +means the only rats who found a living in the place at the expense of +our enemy, man. There were a good many of the species of the large brown +Norwegian rat; but as I have mentioned before, we usually kept out of +their way, from a tender regard for our own ears.</p> + +<p>There was one brown rat, however, whose fame had spread, not only in +his own tribe, but in ours. For quickness of wit, readiness in danger, +strength of teeth, and courage in using them, I have never yet met with +his equal. Whiskerandos was a hero of a rat. Was it not he who in single +combat had met and conquered a young ferret! an exploit in itself quite +sufficient to establish his fame as a warrior. They had been opposed to +each other in a room lighted by a single window. Whiskerandos, whose +intelligence at once +<span class = "pagenum">27</span> +showed him the importance of position, took his station beneath this +window, so that the light was in his enemy’s eyes, and compelled him to +fight at disadvantage. For two long hours the battle lasted, but at +length the ferret lay dead upon the floor!</p> + +<p>Several scars upon the neck of Whiskerandos bore witness to this +terrible encounter, and many others in which he had been engaged. He had +lost one ear, and the other had been grievously curtailed of its +proportions, so that altogether he had paid for fame at the price of +beauty; but he was strong and bold as ever, and his appearance one night +in our warehouse created quite a sensation in the community of rats.</p> + +<p>There was one brown rat, in particular, that seemed to wait upon him, +and pay him court, as though, having no merit of his own, Shabby fancied +that he could borrow a little from a distinguished companion. I have +often seen this in life, (I am now an old and experienced rat,) I +have seen a mean race following and flattering their superiors, ready to +lick the dust from their feet, not from real admiration or attachment, +but, like a mistletoe upon a +<span class = "pagenum">28</span> +forest tree, because they had no proper footing of their own, and liked +to be raised on the credit of another. It is easier to them to fawn than +to work, to flatter the great than to follow their example.</p> + +<p>I own that I was afraid of Whiskerandos, and yet he passed without +touching me, quite above the meanness of hurting a creature merely +because it was weaker than himself. But Shabby gave such a savage snap +at my ear that I retreated squeaking into a corner. I almost think that +I should have returned the bite, had not his formidable companion been +so near; and it was probably this circumstance which gave the mean rat +courage thus to attack me without provocation. From what I have heard of +boys tormenting cats, mice, birds, anything that they can easily master, +while they pay proper respect to bulldogs and mastiffs, I have an idea +that there are some Shabbys to be found even amongst “the lords of +creation.”</p> + +<p>I was busy at my supper, when, chancing to look towards the fatal +hole in which my six brothers had been caught, I saw Whiskerandos and +his follower merrily advancing towards +<span class = "pagenum">29</span> +it, doubtless attracted, as the former victims had been, by a very +enticing scent.</p> + +<p>I do not know how man would have behaved in my position. These +certainly were no friends of mine; but then they were rats; they were of +the race of Mus. I could not see them perish without warning them of +their danger.</p> + +<p>“Stop! stop!” squeaked I, keeping, however, at a respectful distance; +“you are running right into a trap!”</p> + +<p>Whiskerandos turned sharp round and faced me. I retreated back +several steps.</p> + +<p>“Bite him,—fight him,—shake him by the neck!” cried +Shabby; “he knows there is a dainty feast there, and he would keep it +all for his ugly black rats!” Shabby was a great fighter with words; +those of his character usually are; nor was he in the least particular, +when he gave his bad names, that they were in the least suitable and +appropriate, or he would never have applied the term “ugly” to us.</p> + +<p>“You’ll pay for your dainty feast if you go one foot farther!” I +exclaimed; feeling, I confess it, very angry.</p> + +<p>“Who’s afraid!” cried the boaster, flinging +<span class = "pagenum">30</span> +up his hind legs with a saucy flourish as he scampered on. Clap! he was +caught in the trap!</p> + +<p>Poor rat! had he possessed the courage and skill of Whiskerandos +himself, they would have availed him nothing. His miserable squeaking +was louder than that of all my six brothers put together. He would not +take advice, and he found the consequences. He thought himself wiser +than his neighbours, and only discovered his mistake when it had led him +to destruction. Had he only listened to the counsels of a little black +rat!</p> + +<p>Whiskerandos remained for some moments quite still, looking towards +the dismal prison of his companion. He knew too well that it was +impossible to rescue him now. Then, with such bounds as few rats but +himself could make, he sprang to where I was standing.</p> + +<p>“Rat!” he exclaimed, “you have saved my life, and I shall never +forget the obligation. Though you are black and I am brown, no +difference between us shall ever be regarded. Let us be friends to the +end of our days!”</p> + +<p>“Agreed!” I cried; “let’s rub noses upon it!” and noses we +accordingly rubbed.</p> + +<span class = "pagenum">31</span> +<p>He never flinched from his word, that bold Whiskerandos. I never +feared him from that hour; no, not even when I knew that he was hungry, +and had tasted no food from morning till night; I knew that no extremity +would ever induce him to eat up his friend; and many a ramble have we +had together, and through many strange paths has he led me. I ventured +even into the haunts of the brown rats, for his presence was a +sufficient protection. None would have dared to attack me while he was +beside me,—I should hardly have been afraid of a cat!</p> + +<p>I had naturally a fancy for roving, and a great desire to know more +of the world; and what better guide could I have had than the heroic +Whiskerandos? He had not, however, been so great a traveller as +Furry,—he had never yet crossed the water; but he and I +determined, on some favourable opportunity, to take our passage in a +ship, and explore some foreign region together.</p> + +<p>There was but one subject on which Whiskerandos and I were ever in +danger of quarrelling. I had made up my mind—and Furry, who was a +very learned rat, was quite of the same +<span class = "pagenum">32</span> +opinion—that the ancestors of the brown rats came over from +Hanover to England with George I. We liked to call them Hanover +rats, but this gave great offence to the race, as it made their +antiquity so much less than that which we claimed for ourselves.</p> + +<p>“You affirm,” Whiskerandos would exclaim, “that you came over from +Normandy in 1066, and we from Hanover in 1714, and that nothing was ever +heard of us before that time. I affirm that it is a calumny, a base +calumny! We came from Persia, from the land of the East; an army of us +swam across the Volga, driven by an earthquake from our own country. +Depend upon it, we were known there in ancient times, and went over +Xerxes’ great bridge of boats, and nibbled at his tent-ropes and gnawed +his cheese while he fought with the Greeks at Thermopylæ.”</p> + +<p>“After all,” thought I—I did not say it aloud, for the great +weakness of Whiskerandos was his pride of birth, his anxiety to be +thought of an ancient family—“the great matter is not whether our +ancestors do honour to us, but whether by our conduct we do not disgrace +our ancestors.”</p> + + + + +<span class = "pagenum">33</span> +<h3><a name = "chapV" id = "chapV"> +CHAPTER V.</a><br> +<span class = "subhead">HOW BOB MET WITH AN ADVENTURE.</span></h3> + + +<p><span class = "firstword">I was</span> often puzzled by the conduct +of Bob; that was to be expected, seeing that I was a young and ignorant +rat, quite inexperienced in the doings of man. Once or twice Bob had +brought to the shed things which he could not eat and did not wear. I +could neither imagine where he had got them, what he intended to do with +them, nor what possible use he could make of them. He seemed inclined to +hide them; and once, when he was showing to Billy a red handkerchief +covered with white spots (though the weather was bitterly cold, he never +attempted to tie it round his neck), the little boy looked up gravely +into his face and said, “Oh, Bob, arn’t you afeard?”</p> + +<p>“What am I to do; we can’t starve, Billy.” He looked so wan and so +woe-begone, as he bent over the little lame child, that it seemed to me +that never was a creature so wretched as that desolate boy. The next +morning he took away the handkerchief, and in the evening he brought +home bread.</p> + +<span class = "pagenum">34</span> +<p>Once when he returned, the snow was fast falling, drifting through +the roof, and in at the door, till Billy could scarcely find a clear +spot on which to rest his languid little frame. He was always on the +look-out for his brother, as soon as the sky began to darken. Well might +he watch on that day, for he had not broken his fast since the evening +before; and his lips were blue with hunger and cold, and he was lonely, +very lonely, in the shed.</p> + +<p>Presently Bob came hastily in; we had not heard his step on the soft +snow. The flakes were resting on his rags and whitening his hair, as he +threw himself down by his brother.</p> + +<p>“Oh! Billy!” he exclaimed, and burst into tears.</p> + +<p>“What have you got?” cried the little one joyfully. “A big +loaf!” and he tore it asunder in his eager haste, and ate like a +famished creature.</p> + +<p>“And see this!” said Bob; and he wrapped round the shivering child a +warm cloak which he had carried on his arm.</p> + +<p>Billy opened his eyes with an expression of astonishment, which +brightened into joy as he felt the unwonted warmth. “Oh! Bob!” +<span class = "pagenum">35</span> +he exclaimed, with his mouth full of bread; “where did you get this? Did +you steal it?”</p> + +<p>“No; and I’ll never steal no more; never, never!” and the boy sank +his head down upon his chest, and sobbed. I had never seen him shed a +tear till that day.</p> + +<p>“Tell me all about it, tell me!” cried Billy, almost frightened by +his brother’s unwonted emotion; but it was a little time before Bob made +reply.</p> + +<p>“I followed he—a fine, tall gemman. I had my fingers in his +pocket, and he clapped his hand on ’em, and catched me!”</p> + +<p>“Oh!” exclaimed Billy, with eyes and mouth wide open, in alarm. “And +did he not call the beaks, and have you up?”</p> + +<p>“No; he spoke to me; he spoke so kind-like. He told me that I was +<ins class = "correction" title = "text shown as printed: missing words?">about a</ins> sin—a great sin. Nobody never spoke so to me +afore!” Again the boy’s feelings seemed ready to burst forth. “And he +took me to a baker’s, and got me this; and to a shop, and bought me +that; and says he, “Has no one taught you to know right from wrong?” And +says I, “Nobody never taught me nothing!” +<span class = "pagenum">36</span> +Then he takes me a good way round, down a little lane, right into a +Ragged School.”</p> + +<p>“What’s that?” inquired Billy curiously.</p> + +<p>“A place where a great many poor boys were together in a big room, +where there were wooden benches, and pictures and other things hung on +the walls. I should never have dared to go in; but that good gemman took +me, and led me right up to a man who was standing with a row of little +chaps afore him. And the gemman put his hand on my shoulder, and spoke +for me, and said a many things that I can’t remember; but one thing I +remember quite well: “You come here every evening,” says he, “and you’ll +be taught your duty, and how to do it. I am leaving London soon; but I +will be back in a few weeks, and I’ll come and ask the master how you +have been behaving; and if I find that you’ve been trying to become a +better boy, I will not lose sight of you, my friend<ins class = +"correction" title = "no second ”">.”</ins></p> + +<p>“Did the gemman say all that?” exclaimed Billy.</p> + +<p>“And a great deal more. Such beautiful talking! And to see how gentle +and kind he +<span class = "pagenum">37</span> +looked, as if he didn’t think me such a bad un after all!”</p> + +<p>“Did you tell him of me?” asked Billy anxiously.</p> + +<p>“Yes; I told him that I had one little brother, and he was lame; and +that mother was dead and father in jail, and that we had no one to care +for us, and that we were often hungry, and always cold; and he looked +quite sorry to hear it.”</p> + +<p>“Did he though?” cried Billy, much surprised. “And will you go to the +Ragged School, Bobby?”</p> + +<p>“Won’t I!” cried the boy, with a little more energy than I had seen +in him before; “why, if I don’t, I won’t see that good gemman +again!”</p> + +<p>“And won’t you take me with you too?” said little Billy.</p> + + + + +<span class = "pagenum">38</span> +<h3><a name = "chapVI" id = "chapVI"> +CHAPTER VI.</a><br> +<span class = "subhead">HOW I VISITED THE ZOOLOGICAL +GARDENS.</span></h3> + + +<p><span class = "firstword">That</span> night I set out with +Whiskerandos on more extended travels than any which I had yet +attempted. Oddity might have accompanied us, but he preferred, as he +said, home comforts and a nibble in the warehouse. I knew that he would +look after old Furry, whose infirmities were sadly increasing upon him, +so that I had no fear of the blind rat being neglected.</p> + +<p>I suspected that more than one reason induced my pie-bald brother to +decline the tour. He had struck up an acquaintance with Bright-eyes, a +lively little rat, and probably found his society more agreeable than +that of Whiskerandos, of whom he always stood somewhat in awe. I shall +not pause on the description of our underland journey through the +wondrous labyrinth of passages which, like a net-work, spreads in every +direction under the foundations of London. I saw more rats in these +gloomy lanes than I had ever imagined existed in the world. I should +have been +<span class = "pagenum">39</span> +afraid to have passed them, so fierce they looked, so ready to attack an +intruder, had not Whiskerandos been at my side. He neither provoked +contests, nor feared them—neither gave offence willingly, nor took +it readily—but had withal so resolute an air, that few would have +been disposed to have quarrelled with him. I was heartily glad, however, +when again we emerged into the light of day; and I was full of +astonishment at the sight of green grass and trees, such as I had never +beheld before.</p> + +<p>“Ah!” said Whiskerandos, smiling at my delight, “you should see this +grass in the fresh spring, and those black bare trees when the bright +young leaves are upon them. The branches of yonder row seem dropping +their blossoms of gold; and how sweet is the scent of the hawthorn! But +I would not have you pass through that iron paling to examine more +closely the beauties of the garden; the square would be a charming +place, no doubt, if it were not haunted by cats.”</p> + +<p>I had never seen a cat in my life, but I started instinctively at the +name. “Take me anywhere,” I exclaimed, “take me anywhere +<span class = "pagenum">40</span> +that you will, so that I never come in sight of one of those terrible +creatures!”</p> + +<p>“I am going,” said Whiskerandos, “to take you where there are cats so +huge that one could take a man’s head in her mouth, or strike him dead +by a blow of her paw!”</p> + +<p>“Oh, for my shed! Oh, for my quiet hole! for Furry, and Oddity, and +my peaceable companions!” thought I. “What folly it was to venture +into the world with such a guide as this desperado, Whiskerandos!”</p> + +<p>I suppose that the bold rat read my thoughts in my frightened face, +for he hastened to reassure my mind. “The big cats,” said he, “some with +long flowing manes, some spotted, some striped black and yellow, have no +power to harm us. They are kept in barred cages by man, and spend their +lives in wearisome captivity, denied even the solace of amusing +themselves by catching a mouse for supper.”</p> + +<p>It was the dawn of a winter’s morning, when with my comrade I merrily +made my way across the park. The grass was whitened with hoar-frost, +which also glittered on the leafless boughs of the rows of trees which +lined the long straight avenue. We entered the +<span class = "pagenum">41</span> +gardens without paying toll, or in any way obtruding ourselves on the +notice of man.</p> + +<p>“See here!” exclaimed Whiskerandos, half pettishly, as we passed a +pond with a curious wire-fence all round it. “What a dainty breakfast we +should make of some of the delicate young water-fowl, but for the +extraordinary care which has been taken to shut us out! We can look in, +to be sure, and see our prey, but the ducks do not even flutter, or move +a wing, so secure are they that we cannot reach them!”</p> + +<p>The season being winter, we were unable to see many animals from +tropical climes, whose health would have suffered from exposure to cold. +I however regretted this but little. The white bear was shaking his +shaggy coat, the wolf pacing uneasily up and down his den, birds pluming +their feathers in the dull red light, while the monkeys’ ceaseless +jabber sounded from the walls of their prison.</p> + +<p>“Whiskerandos,” said I to my guide, “I care little for making +acquaintance with cats, whether they be little or big; but if any +foreigners of the race of Mus be kept here, might I request you to +introduce me to them?”</p> + +<span class = "pagenum">42</span> +<p>Whiskerandos pointed with his nose towards a building. “You will find +relations there,” he said, “some of the forty-six classes of our race, +known by the family likeness in their teeth.<a class = "tag" name = +"tag1" id = "tag1" href = "#note1">1</a> For me, I’m going to pay a +visit to the monkeys’ house; I’m sure there to find some provision, +always a matter of importance to a rat. The door is shut, but I’ll not +trouble the keeper to open it for me!” So saying, with wonderful agility +he began to climb the building, and soon vanished through a hole in the +roof.</p> + +<p>Food was to me a subject of at least as great importance as to +Whiskerandos. Even my curiosity had to wait attendance on my appetite. I +was fortunate, however, in discovering half a bun, which had probably +been dropped by some child; and cheered and refreshed I proceeded to the +building in which I was to make my affectionate search for distant +relations. I carefully examined the walls, till I discovered a hole, +probably made by some rat of the place, and through this I entered the +house, and proceeded at once +<span class = "pagenum">43</span> +with eagerness to a small barred division, from whence a feeble squeak +proceeded.</p> + +<p class = "footnote"> +<a class = "tag" name = "note1" id = "note1" href = "#tag1">1)</a> +I am not aware whether the Zoological Gardens at present contain +specimens of the curious rats described in the following chapter.</p> + + + + +<h3><a name = "chapVII" id = "chapVII"> +CHAPTER VII.</a><br> +<span class = "subhead">FINDING RELATIONS.</span></h3> + + +<p>“<span class = "firstword">Well</span>, this is at length such +weather as a creature may live and breathe in! I’ve been half stifled +all the autumn with the heat, but now the fresh keen air seems like a +breeze from my own dear Lapland!”</p> + +<p>“Lapland! oh! there is nothing like Lapland,” said a very dolorous +voice in reply. I lifted up my eyes to get a glimpse of the speaker.</p> + +<p>Within the cage were two beautiful little Lemmings, (I learnt +their name afterwards as well as those of other inhabitants of the +place.) They were not much more than half my size, had pointed heads, +very short tails, and whiskers uncommonly long. Their coats were black +and tawny, but yellowish-white beneath. I heard subsequently that their +race inhabit Siberia, Norway, and other cold climes, moving in large +bodies like locusts, and like locusts +<span class = "pagenum">44</span> +eating up every thing green. But this pair, as was evident from their +conversation, had been natives of a country called Lapland.</p> + +<p>“Oh for a sight of the icy lakes, the snow-covered plains and the +reindeer moving lightly over them; while the rosy Aurora Borealis throws +its bright streamers across the sky!”</p> + +<p>“And the strange little huts,” rejoined the other, “made of briers, +bark, felt, and reindeer skins, where, when we peeped under the curtains +which made the door, we saw the tiny people, in their sheepskin +doublets, sitting on their heels round the fire! I don’t wonder that the +Lapps love their land; I don’t wonder that when long exiled from it, +they die of intense longing to return. That will be my fate, oh! that +will be mine!”</p> + +<p>“Allow an English rat, gentle strangers,” said I, “to offer a little +word of comfort. I grieve that you feel your captivity so much, that you +so deeply mourn your absence from your dear native land. But is it not +better to meet misfortune with courage, and bear it with patience? You +are yet left the society of each other, you can yet talk over old days +<span class = "pagenum">45</span> +together, while the white bear growls in his prison alone, and the lofty +camel has no companion near him.”</p> + +<p>I was interrupted by some animal near dashing itself passionately +against the bars of its cage, and, turning round, I beheld a very savage +rat, which bore the name of the German Hamster. His head was thick, +blunt, and garnished with plenty of whiskers; he had big eyes, and +large, open, rounded ears. His back and head were of a reddish-brown +colour, his cheeks red, his feet white, and he had three odd white spots +on each side of his chest. But the funniest thing which I noticed about +him, (I was always an observant rat,) was that he had a claw on his +forefeet in addition to four toes, which I had never before seen in the +tribes of Mus.</p> + +<p>“’Tis easy to talk of comfort!” he exclaimed angrily, “when a rat has +freedom and everything else that he cares for! But here—why I have +not even the comfort of going to sleep after the fashion of my +country!”</p> + +<p>“Not going to sleep!” I repeated in some surprise, thinking to myself +that so peevish a creature must certainly be best in his sleep.</p> + +<span class = "pagenum">46</span> +<p>“No; who can sleep on bare boards, or a poor sprinkling of straw!” he +exclaimed, striking contemptuously the floor of his cage. “I who +used to burrow deep in the earth, and enjoy a long nap all during the +winter, shut up in my snug little home, I know what comfort is! There is +nothing like lying some feet under the earth, as quiet as if one were +dead, and know that there is a good magazine collected of grain, beans, +and pease, to feast on when one awakes in the spring.”</p> + +<p>“But at any rate here you are well fed,” I suggested.</p> + +<p>The words, however kindly intended, had only the effect of increasing +the Hamster’s passion to a shocking extent. To my amazement and horror +he blew out his cheeks till the size of his head and neck exceeded that +of his body. He raised himself on his hind legs, and but for the bars of +his cage I believe that he would really have flown at me.</p> + +<p>“Well fed!” he exclaimed, as soon as he could speak; “I should +like to know what you call being well fed! Since I have come to this +hateful country, not once have I had an opportunity of filling my cheeks +with grain. +<span class = "pagenum">47</span> +Man, stingy man, thinks it enough to give me a wretched pittance from +day to day,—to me who have had a hundred pounds of corn packed up +in my own deep hole,—to me whose delight it was to carry three +ounces weight of it at once in these bags with which Nature has provided +my face!”</p> + +<p>“Most curious and convenient bags they are,” said I, willing to +appease him by a civil word, though I thought that thus puffed out with +air, they anything but added to the beauty of his appearance.</p> + +<p>“They were the cause of my being taken,” cried the fierce Hamster, +whose savage complaints had quite silenced the gentler murmurs of the +pretty little Lemmings, and had done more perhaps to make them +submissive to their lot than anything which I could have said.</p> + +<p>“How were your pouches the cause of your being taken?” +inquired I.</p> + +<p>“I can fight savagely—I will fly even at dogs,” replied the +Hamster (no one could have looked at him and have doubted it,) “but +I cannot bite when my cheeks are stuffed full of grain, which was the +case when a German +<span class = "pagenum">48</span> +peasant seized me; I had no time to empty them, not a moment, or +wouldn’t I have bitten him! oh, would not I have bitten him!”</p> + +<p>I felt so much disgusted at the words and manner of this most +ferocious of rats, that I was glad to turn away from his cage; +reflecting to myself how hideous and how hateful any creature is +rendered by violent passion.</p> + +<p>A perfume, rather more powerful than agreeable, drew my attention +towards a division occupied by a Musk-Rat, a native of Canada. I saw +within it a creature of the size of a small rabbit, quiet and staid in +his demeanour, who welcomed me with a grave courtesy strangely in +contrast to the rudeness of the Hamster.</p> + +<p>“May I venture to look upon you as belonging to the race of Mus?” I +inquired, looking doubtingly at his large size, soft fur, and long flat +tail.</p> + +<p>“Well,” he replied, good-humouredly, “some naturalists, and I believe +the great Linnæus amongst them, class me with the Castor or Beaver race, +and dignify me with a very long and learned-sounding name, Zibethicus. +But I am quite content, for my part, to own my +<span class = "pagenum">49</span> +relationship to the race of Mus, and to be known by the simple name +Musk-Rat, which they give me on the lakes of Canada.”</p> + +<p>“I am delighted,” said I, with a wave of my whiskers, “at this +opportunity of paying my respects to so dignified a relation.”</p> + +<p>“Ah!” replied Zibethicus, “I only wish that I could have received you +in my own house upon the Lake Huron. If you could but have seen the +pretty round dwelling raised by myself and my companions—the neat +dome-shaped roof which covered it, formed of herbs and reeds cemented +with clay. So prettily it was stuccoed within! A great deal of trouble +it cost us, to be sure, but I often think there’s no pleasure without +trouble; and there’s nothing in my captivity which I miss so much as the +power to labour and build.”</p> + +<p>“May I ask,” said I, “whether you be of the same family with the Musk +Cavy, which I have heard of as inhabiting Ceylon and other places in the +East?”</p> + +<p>“I believe not,” answered my courteous companion, “but we doubtless +belong to the same race, however our habits and appearance may +differ.”</p> + +<span class = "pagenum">50</span> +<p>Our pleasant conversation was here unfortunately interrupted by the +keeper’s opening the door. I had barely time to hide myself under some +straw, resolving not to show myself again till darkness should render it +safe for me to creep out.</p> + +<p>Soon various visitors arrived, and I was vastly amused by watching +the different varieties of the human species, of which there must be +nearly as many as of the race of Mus. For the first time in my life I +saw ladies all bedizened in velvets and silks, and the furry spoils of +many an unfortunate ermine or sable. I saw gentlemen too, and I confess +that a creeping uncomfortable feeling came over me when I looked at the +hats which they had on their heads, the fine black gloss was so +exceedingly like that of the coat which I wore. I have since learnt that +my conjecture was but too close to the fact—that numberless +hapless rats are slaughtered in France on account of their fatal beauty; +and that man not only manufactures their fur into hats, but uses their +soft and delicate skins to make the thumbs of his best gloves. Alas, for +the race of Mus!</p> + + + + +<span class = "pagenum">51</span> +<h3><a name = "chapVIII" id = "chapVIII"> +CHAPTER VIII.</a><br> +<span class = "subhead">HOW I HEARD OF OLD NEIGHBOURS.</span></h3> + + +<p><span class = "firstword">In</span> the afternoon a gentleman entered +the building, whose noble and commanding appearance struck me. After a +short examination of the captives in their cages, he sat down to rest +himself nearly opposite the place where I was hidden.</p> + +<p>He was almost directly joined by a bright-haired boy, in whose cheeks +health was glowing, and whose blue eyes sparkled with intelligence and +enjoyment.</p> + +<p>“Papa—please—I want more money to buy buns for the +animals!”</p> + +<p>“My dear boy,” replied the gentleman, in an expostulating tone, “you +have had a whole dozen already; I do not think it right to spend more on +pampering well-fed animals, when so many of our fellow-creatures are +suffering from hunger.”</p> + +<p>“Oh, papa! do you think there are many?”</p> + +<p>“I believe that in this city of London alone there are +thousands,—yes, tens of thousands, who know not, when they rise in +the morning, +<span class = "pagenum">52</span> +where they shall find a morsel of food during the day. I did not tell +you what happened to me when I was in the city, Neddy.”</p> + +<p>“Do tell me now,” cried the boy, seating himself by his father, +“while we rest a little quietly here.”</p> + +<p>“I was walking along a narrow gloomy lane on my way to the +shipping-office, when suddenly I felt a hand at my pocket. Mine was +instantly down upon it, and I captured a little thief who appeared to be +about your own age.”</p> + +<p>“The little rogue!” exclaimed Neddy, indignantly. “And what did you +do with him, papa? Did you give him over to the police, or thrash him +soundly with your stick?”</p> + +<p>“I grieved to see one so young already plunging into crime.”</p> + +<p>“Yes, that is the worst of it,” said Neddy. “If he is so bad as a +boy, what will he be when he is a man! He will be sure to end on the +gallows! I hope you punished him well, papa.”</p> + +<p>I pricked up my ears on hearing this conversation; I could not help +connecting it with what Bob had told his lame little brother; +<span class = "pagenum">53</span> +I therefore listened with peculiar interest. Not that, as a rat, I could +understand the word <i>crime</i>, or know why human beings feel it wrong +to seize anything that they want and can get. It was evident to me that +they are governed by laws and principles quite incomprehensible to my +race. For as man has no scruple in taking from rats their lives and +their skins, so rats, on the other hand, have no manner of scruple in +taking all they require from man.</p> + +<p>But to return to the gentleman and his son.</p> + +<p>“No, Neddy, I did not punish the child,” replied the former gravely. +<ins class = "correction" title = "“ missing">“I</ins> looked at +his meagre form clothed in rags, his wasted countenance prematurely old +in its expression of sorrow and care, his hollow eyes, his sunken +cheeks,—and I thought of you, my son!” the gentleman added, with a +sigh.</p> + +<p>“Well,” said Neddy, “I hope there’s a precious deal of difference +between me and a beggarly thief!”</p> + +<p>“What has made that difference?” said the gentleman, laying his hand +on the shoulder of his beautiful boy. “I questioned that unhappy +<span class = "pagenum">54</span> +child. I found him ignorant of the first principles of virtue. His +mother is dead, his father in jail; if he has learnt anything from those +around him it is only a knowledge of vice. Pinched by hunger, homeless, +friendless, ignorant even that he has a soul, it would be a miracle +indeed if he followed the straight path of which he has not so much as +heard! What can we expect him to be but a thief,—what would you +have been in his place?”</p> + +<p>Neddy looked thoughtful and was silent. Then raising his blue eyes to +his father’s face he said, “And what did you do to the boy?”</p> + +<p>“I first tried to relieve a little his pressing bodily wants; to take +from him, at least for one day, the temptation to commit a theft. But I +knew that the temptation would recur again, and as long as he continued +in blind ignorance, there could be small hope that he would even wish to +resist it. I remembered that my watchmaker had given me the direction of +a Ragged School at which his daughter taught; spending her time and +energies as so many do now, in this noblest labour of love. This school +was not very far off, and I resolved +<span class = "pagenum">55</span> +to take this opportunity of paying it a long-intended visit. I took the +poor little fellow with me, and spoke to the superintendent, who readily +agreed to receive him. He will there learn some way to earn his bread +honestly; he will be taught to know right from wrong; he will hear, +perhaps for the first time, the voice of kindness; and he may yet live +to be respectable, useful, and happy.”</p> + +<p>“Oh! papa, do you think that after once being a thief he is ever +likely to turn out good for anything!”</p> + +<p>“The experiment has been tried over and over again, Neddy, and many +times it has been mercifully attended with success. The idle <i>have</i> +become industrious, the thieves honest, the vicious been reclaimed, the +lost found and saved! I will tell you a striking occurrence which really +took place in a reformatory for thieves. Not one of the inmates there +but had broken the laws of his country, and committed the crime of +theft. But mercy was giving them a chance to redeem the characters which +they had lost, and they were learning various trades, by which to +support themselves in honest independence. A subscription, as +<span class = "pagenum">56</span> +you may remember, was raised at the time of the war with Russia, to help +the widows and orphans of our gallant soldiers. From the Sovereign on +her throne, to the labourer in the field, from rich and poor, high and +low, contributions to the Patriotic Fund poured in.</p> + +<p>“The thieves in the reformatory heard of the subscription; they +longed to aid it, but what could they do? they had no money, they owed +their very bread to charity, for they had not yet acquired sufficient +skill in the trades which they were learning, to pay even their +necessary expenses.”</p> + +<p>“They could not give what they had not got, papa, if they wished to +be generous ever so much.”</p> + +<p>“Where there is a will there is a way, Neddy. These poor fellows were +so anxious to help the widow and the orphan, that they asked and +obtained leave to go a whole day without food, that the money so saved +upon them might be paid into the Patriotic Fund.”</p> + +<p>“And did they really starve a whole day?—have neither +breakfast, nor dinner, nor supper,—and all go hungry to bed?”</p> + +<p>“They did, Neddy, <i>all</i> the thieves in that +<span class = "pagenum">57</span> +reformatory<a class = "tag" name = "tag2" id = "tag2" href = +"#note2">2</a> did; and I doubt if amongst the hundreds of thousands of +subscriptions to the Patriotic Fund, any showed so much real generosity +and self-denial as the contribution of the reformed thieves!”</p> + +<p>“Oh! there was hope for such men indeed!” exclaimed Neddy, the +moisture rising into his eyes. “There must have been good in them, papa, +and I should not wonder if some of them turned out really fine +fellows.”</p> + +<p>“I have no doubt of it,” said his father with a smile.</p> + +<p>“And that poor boy—yes, I hope that he may amend. Shall we hear +anything more of him, papa?”</p> + +<p>“You know that we go out of town to-morrow. On my return I shall make +inquiries regarding him at the Ragged School, and if I find that he is +improving under the instruction which he will receive, I shall try to do +something for him.”</p> + +<p>“May I go with you?” said Neddy eagerly, “I should like to visit the +school.”</p> + +<p>“I think that I shall take you with me,” replied his father.</p> + +<span class = "pagenum">58</span> +<p>“What a glorious thing it is,” exclaimed the boy after a pause, “to +raise ragged schools and reformatories, to give the poor, the ignorant, +and the wicked, a chance of becoming honest and happy! How I should like +to build one myself<ins class = "correction" title = "” missing">!”</ins></p> + +<p>“It would be more practicable for you,” observed the gentleman, +smiling as he rose from his seat, “to support those which are built +already.”<a class = "tag" name = "tag3" id = "tag3" href = +"#note3">3</a></p> + +<p>“But, papa, I can do so little!”</p> + +<p>“Every little helps, my son; the vast ocean is made up of drops. You +may do something yourself, and try to interest others in the cause of +the desolate poor. Were all the children +<span class = "pagenum">59</span> +of the middle classes in England to give each but one penny a-week, no +wretched boy need wander about desolate in London, to perish both here +and hereafter because no one cared for his soul!”</p> + +<div class = "footnote"> +<p><a class = "tag" name = "note2" id = "note2" href = "#tag2">2)</a> +The Reformatory in Great Smith Street, Westminster<ins class = +"correction" title = ". missing">. </ins></p> + +<p><a class = "tag" name = "note3" id = "note3" href = "#tag3">3)</a> +The office of the “Ragged School Union” is at 1 Exeter Hall, London. By +this admirable society twenty-two thousand poor children have received +instruction during the past year, while five hundred of the most +destitute have been provided with homes in refuges and reformatories. To +show the habits of prudence inculcated in the schools, it is only +necessary to state that in the same year ragged scholars placed in +saving-banks a sum of no less than three thousand four hundred and +thirty-nine pounds! Seventy of those who now teach in the schools, were +once ragged scholars themselves, thus imparting to others the benefits +which they had received when poor ignorant children.</p> + +<p>But the funds of the society are by no means sufficient for the work +before it, though many of its teachers are unpaid, seeking no reward +upon earth. There are numbers of ragged children in London, as desolate +as those whom I have described, who have never known the blessing of a +ragged school, and who, if they implored the shelter of a refuge, must +implore in vain, for they would find no room.</p> +</div> + + + + +<h3><a name = "chapIX" id = "chapIX"> +CHAPTER IX.</a><br> +<span class = "subhead">HOW WE FOUND A FEAST.</span></h3> + + +<p><span class = "firstword">I remained</span> in the Zoological Gardens +for a few weeks, improving my acquaintance with the mild Zibethicus and +the gentle Lemmings. As for the German Hamster, he became so drowsy as +the weather grew colder, that it became evident that he could sleep day +and night upon boards, though he never fell into the perfectly torpid, +almost dead state that he would have done, could he have been humoured +by being buried alive.</p> + +<p>I should willingly have remained longer in the gardens, but the +keepers were taking such stringent measures to get rid of rats, that we +thought it better to remove on our own four feet while we could, instead +of being carried in a bag, a kind of conveyance for which we +<span class = "pagenum">60</span> +had no fancy. We therefore<a class = "tag" name = "endtagA" id = +"endtagA" href = "#endnoteA">A</a> set out on our journey homewards.</p> + +<p>We again chose the underland route, lest we should meet with dogs and +cats in the streets, or be crushed beneath rolling wheels. We had not +gone far, however, when Whiskerandos suddenly stopped.</p> + +<p>“I feel hungry,” said he.</p> + +<p>“So do I,” rejoined I.</p> + +<p>“We must find our way into one of the houses,” observed the bold rat; +“let’s turn down this passage, it doubtless leads to some kitchen.”</p> + +<p>Down the passage we accordingly turned, Whiskerandos, as usual, going +first; but we were met, almost at the entrance, by two savage brown +rats, who did not seem disposed to allow us to pass.</p> + +<p>“Pray, does this passage lead to a kitchen?” said Whiskerandos, not +appearing to notice their sharp teeth and gleaming eyes.</p> + +<p>“Yes,” replied one; “but the passage, and the house, and the kitchen, +belong to us, and we let no one share in our rights.”</p> + +<p>“Any one who attempts to pass,” cried the other, very fiercely, “has +to pay us toll with his ears!”</p> + +<span class = "pagenum">61</span> +<p>“Well, my good friends,” replied Whiskerandos, “notwithstanding the +darkness I have no doubt but that your bright eyes have observed that I +have paid that toll already, and that is a kind of toll which no one is +expected to pay twice.” The brown rats looked at the warrior with keen, +wondering gaze, while Whiskerandos calmly continued, “I lost my +ears in single combat with a ferret; he who exacted the toll lost his +life in exchange, and I feel somehow persuaded that you will rather +politely guide me into your house and share with me whatever I get +there, than try the experiment whether a rat can fight as well without +ears as he once did with them.”</p> + +<p>This little speech had a most wonderful effect in subduing all +unfriendly and inhospitable feelings on the part of the brown rats +towards the valiant Whiskerandos. They, however, looked very +suspiciously at me, and I fancied that I heard one whisper to the other, +“There’s a black rat—an intruder—an enemy—we must tear +him in pieces!”</p> + +<p>I felt uncommonly uncomfortable, and much inclined to turn round and +scamper for my life; but Whiskerandos soon ended the difficulty. +<span class = "pagenum">62</span> +“Let me introduce to you my friend Ratto,” said he, “my very particular +friend, who goes where I go, shares what I find, and whose safety I +value as my own.”</p> + +<p>Nothing more was said about tearing me in pieces, so we all proceeded +amicably on our way, till the brown rats led us through a small hole, +and we found ourselves in a large, airy kitchen.</p> + +<p>The place was perfectly quiet; the loud ticking of the clock was the +only sound heard, the swing of its pendulum the only motion seen, except +that a few black beetles were creeping on the sanded floor. The fire, +which must have been a very large one, had almost burnt out; but a few +red embers still were glowing, and served to light us on our way, +though, as I have mentioned before, light seems unnecessary to rats.</p> + +<p>We peeped about, under the dresser, on the shelves, and snuffed at +the locked door of the larder, but nothing could we discover fit for +food. A jar on a shelf looked tempting enough, but being made, cover and +all, of crockery ware, it defied even our sharp little teeth.</p> + +<span class = "pagenum">63</span> +<p>“I’ve made a discovery!” exclaimed I at last, and at my shout the +three other rats came eagerly running towards the place where I stood +rejoicing by a flask of oil.</p> + +<p>“I’ve seen that flask a dozen times,” exclaimed one of the Brownies, +in a tone of angry disappointment; “I have longed to taste its +contents, but how is a rat to get at them?”</p> + +<p>Here was a puzzler indeed. But Whiskerandos was ever ready at +expedients. With neat dexterity he extracted the stopper; but here the +difficulty did not end, for the neck of the bottle was too narrow by far +to admit the head of a rat; and the position of the flask, in a wooden +box, rendered it impossible to alter its position so as to pour out its +contents.</p> + +<p>“Mighty little use that flask is to us!” exclaimed one of the +Brownies, impatiently.</p> + +<p>But my clever rat was not easily discouraged In a moment he had +dipped in his long tail, and then whisking it out again, scattered +around a fragrant shower of oil!</p> + +<p>There was no end to the praises and commendations which Whiskerandos +received for this simple device. He took little notice of them, however, +and only playfully observed, +<span class = "pagenum">64</span> +“It is Ratto who should have thought of this, since nature has furnished +black rats with two hundred and fifty distinct rings in their tails, +while brown ones have only two hundred.”</p> + +<p>“Ah, Whiskerandos!” exclaimed I, “this oil is a nice relish to be +sure, but my appetite craves something solid;” and I looked piteously up +at the jar. The other rats looked up piteously also.</p> + +<p>“Let us see what we can do!” cried my spirited companion; and he +clambered for the second time up on the shelf on which stood the +tantalizing jar. This time he did not even attempt to nibble at the hard +polished crockery<ins class = "correction" title = ", invisible">, +</ins>he wasted not his energies in any such fruitless endeavour; but, +putting his mighty strength to the task, he pushed the whole jar nearer +and nearer to the edge of the shelf, then over it, till at length it +fell with a tremendous crash which made every one of us leap up high +into the air with amazement!</p> + +<p>We might have leapt for joy also, for from the broken crockery what a +feast of delicious dried fruits rolled forth! With what glee we set to +our supper, while Whiskerandos sprang from his shelf, too eager to +partake of the +<span class = "pagenum">65</span> +tempting repast to take the slower method of climbing. I must confess +that of all pleasures upon earth there is none to a rat like eating; if +such be the case with any of the lords of creation, why I can only say +that they must be content to be reckoned like rats.</p> + +<p>We were in the midst of our feast, our mouths full, and our whiskers +merrily wagging, when we were startled by a faint noise at the kitchen +door. A stealthy sound, as of human feet moving slowly and cautiously +along; a timid hand laid softly on the handle of the door; and then a +whispering murmur of voices. We pricked up our ears and stopped +eating.</p> + +<p>“I am sure that the noise came from the kitchen;—listen!” said +a timorous voice. So those without listened, and so did we within, when +the clock suddenly striking One, made us all start, and so frightened +the Brownies, that off they scampered into their hole. Whiskerandos and +I retreated some steps, and then remained in an attitude of attention, +while again the whispering began.</p> + +<p>“Would it not be safer to call in a policeman?”</p> + +<p>“No, no,—my blunderbuss is loaded, and +<span class = "pagenum">66</span> +the villains cannot escape. You are nervous—go back, Eliza.”</p> + +<p>“Dearest—I’ll never leave you to meet the danger alone!”</p> + +<p>The handle creaked as it was slowly turned round, and Whiskerandos +exclaiming, “We’d better be off!” followed the example of the Brownies. +Strong curiosity made me linger for a moment, as the door was opened +inch by inch, and I had a glimpse of what to this day I cannot remember +without laughing. One of the lords of the creation slowly advanced +through it, robed in a long red dressing-gown, a candle in one hand, a +loaded blunderbuss in the other, and with a most ludicrous expression on +his pallid face, as though he were making up his mind to kill somebody, +but was a little afraid that somebody might kill him instead! His wife, +looking ghastly in her curl-papers with her eyes and mouth wide open in +fright, was trying to pull him back, and was evidently terrified to +glance round the kitchen, lest some midnight robber should meet her +gaze. Away I scudded, my sides shaking with mirth, leaving the broken +jar and the scattered fruits to tell their own tale, and wondering with +what +<span class = "pagenum">67</span> +stories of midnight alarms the valiant husband and his devoted spouse +would amuse their family in the morning.</p> + + + + +<h3><a name = "chapX" id = "chapX"> +CHAPTER X.</a><br> +<span class = "subhead">THE WANT OF A DENTIST.</span></h3> + + +<p><span class = "firstword">I was</span> glad to see Oddity’s kind ugly +face again in our native shed. How much I had to tell him! how much +older I now felt than one who had never wandered a hundred yards from +his home! Who knows not the pleasure of returning even after a brief +absence, full of information, eager to impart it, and sure of a ready +and attentive listener? I talked over my adventures to my brother, till +any patience but his would have been exhausted; but he was the most +patient of rats, quite willing to have all his adventures second-hand, +without the slightest wish to become a hero, but ready, without a +particle of envy, to admire the exploits of others.</p> + +<p>“And how is old Furry?” I asked, when at length I came to the end of +my narration. +<span class = "pagenum">68</span> +Furry had now taken up his quarters in the warehouse, but sometimes +visited our shed.</p> + +<p>Oddity looked very grave. “You know,” replied he, “that poor Furry +had the misfortune some time ago to lose one of his upper front +teeth.”</p> + +<p>“I know it; he struck it out when gnawing at the hoop of a barrel. +But I do not see that the misfortune is great; old Furry has other teeth +left.”</p> + +<p>“<i>That</i> is his misfortune,” added Oddity.</p> + +<p>“How?—what do you mean?—what does he complain +of,—losing his teeth or keeping them?”</p> + +<p>“Both,” said Oddity. I should have thought him joking, but Oddity was +never guilty of a joke in his life. “You see,” he continued, observing +my look of surprise, “that gnawing is necessary to us rats, to keep down +the quick growth of our teeth. If they are not constantly rubbing one +against another, they soon get a great deal too long for our mouths. As +poor old Furry’s upper tooth is gone, of course the one just under it is +now out of work, and having nothing else to do, is growing at +<span class = "pagenum">69</span> +such a pace, that it is actually forming a circle in his mouth!”</p> + +<p>“You don’t say so!” I exclaimed “I have often noticed the strange +length of that tooth, but I had no notion of the extent of the +evil.”</p> + +<p>“It has much increased since you left us,” sighed Oddity, “and where +it will end I really don’t know. The poor fellow is blind, he had no +pleasure but in nibbling and chatting, and now his dreadful long tooth +is actually locking his jaw.”</p> + +<p>“Shall I go to see him?” said I.</p> + +<p>“Do as you please,” replied Oddity. “There is little pleasure in +seeing him now, poor fellow.”</p> + +<p>And so I found when I went. Poor old Furry’s misfortune had by no +means sweetened his temper. He was ready to bite any one who approached +him, only biting was now out of the question. He could hardly manage to +swallow a little meal which Oddity had procured, and certainly took it +without a sign of gratitude. One would have thought, by his manner +towards the piebald rat, that it was he who had knocked out the unlucky +front tooth, instead of having kindly attended to +<span class = "pagenum">70</span> +Furry’s wants for so long, and borne with his temper, which was harder. +But Oddity was, without a doubt, the most patient and steady of rats. +While Bright-eyes, full of fun, made many a joke at the expense of the +blind, crabbed old rat, who had been so fond of talking, and now could +scarcely utter a squeak—of eating, and now could not nibble a +nut,—Oddity never thought the sufferings of another the subject +for a smile, or the peevishness and infirmities of age any theme for the +ridicule of the young. He had been often laughed at himself; that was +perhaps the reason why he never gave the same pain to others.</p> + +<p>I was really glad to escape back to my shed from the atmosphere of a +peevish temper. I was accompanied to it by Oddity.</p> + +<p>“And now, dear old rat,” said I, when we were alone, “how go on our +little ragged friends? What has become of Bob and Billy?”</p> + +<p>“They still live, or rather starve, in the old shed,” said he; “but +now they go out each day together. I expect them here every minute.”</p> + +<p>“So then they are as poor as ever?” inquired I.</p> + +<p>“I have heard something of occasional treats +<span class = "pagenum">71</span> +of warm soup at the school, but I don’t think that they get anything +certain. I suppose that now and then, when some good folk sit down to a +comfortable meal, beside a roaring fire, they just happen to remember +that seventy or eighty half-famished children are gathered together in a +street near, and send them a welcome supply. But both Bob and Billy have +hope now, if they have nothing else; they expect soon to be able to do +something for themselves, and to be helped on by the kind friends whom +they have found at the school.”</p> + +<p>“Has Bob brought home any more red handkerchiefs with white spots?” +inquired I.</p> + +<p>“Not a rag of one,” answered my companion; “but he brings back +something which puzzles my brain—something white, with black marks +upon it. He and little Billy sit poring over it by the hour. They don’t +eat it, they don’t smell it, they don’t wear it: I can’t make out that +it is of any use to them at all; and yet they seem as much pleased, as +they study it together, as if it were a piece of Dutch cheese!”</p> + +<p>“What are these odd things scattered about +<span class = "pagenum">72</span> +the shed?” said I; “I don’t remember seeing them before.”</p> + +<p>“Ah! I forgot to say the little one is beginning to make baskets, and +neat fingers he has about it: it seems quite a pleasure to the child. +The very talk of the boys is growing different now; the +elder—”</p> + +<p>He stopped at the sound of a distant cough, which became more +distressing every minute, till our two poor boys entered the shed, and +Bob sank wearily down on the floor.</p> + +<p>“Oh! that cough, how it shakes you!” cried Billy.</p> + +<p>“Never mind, ’twill be over soon,” gasped his brother.</p> + +<p>I was so much surprised at the change in the boys’ appearance, that +at first I could hardly believe my eyes. They both looked much whiter +than I had seen them before; their hair was cut closer, and brushed to +one side, instead of hanging right over their eyes. Neither of the +brothers was in rags; the old worn clothes indeed were still there, but +neatly patched and mended; some one had given Bob a pair of old shoes, +but it was Billy who wore the warm cloak.</p> + +<span class = "pagenum">73</span> +<p>“His brother always makes him wear it,” whispered Oddity, “except at +night, and then it covers them both.”</p> + +<p>“Now you must have it, Bob; isn’t it comfy?” said the lame child, +pressing the cloak round his brother, whose violent cough for the moment +prevented his reply, and brought a bright colour to his cheek, which I +never had seen there before. “I’ll creep very close to you, Bobby, and +then we’ll both have it, you know. There! are you better now?” he said, +softly, laying his thin cheek against that of his brother.</p> + +<p>“I don’t think I’ll ever get better here.” The boy shivered and +closed his eyes as he spoke.</p> + +<p>“Oh, Bob! Bob!” cried the child, in accents of fear, “you’re not +a-going to be ill like mother; you’re not a-going to—die, and +leave me!”</p> + +<p>There was something very gentle in the tone, and sweet in the uplift +eye, of the poor destitute boy, as he replied, “I can’t say if I’m +a-going to die, Billy; but don’t you mind what Miss Mary told us about +dying? I used to be afeared when I thought on it, but now—I think +I could die and be happy!”</p> + +<span class = "pagenum">74</span> +<p>“But you must not—you shall not go and leave me! Oh! what +should I do without you?” cried Billy, bursting into tears.</p> + + + + +<h3><a name = "chapXI" id = "chapXI"> +CHAPTER XI.</a><br> +<span class = "subhead">A REMOVAL.</span></h3> + + +<p><span class = "firstword">A manly</span> voice was heard on the +outside, speaking to a porter who was passing at the moment.</p> + +<p>“Can you tell me, pray, whether two boys of the name of Parton live +near this place? From the direction which was given me, I think that we +must be near their dwelling.”</p> + +<p>“Parton?—well,” began the porter, in a doubtful voice; but +little Billy was up in a moment: “Yes, here they are! here’s where we +live!” shouted he, and the next minute the shed was entered by the +gentleman and his son whom I had seen at the Zoological Gardens.</p> + +<p>The father almost started as he glanced round the miserable place, +and the look of pity on his face deepened into one of pain, while Neddy +appeared even more shocked. He had, I suspect, known little of poverty, +<span class = "pagenum">75</span> +but by hearsay; and the bare, terrible reality took him by surprise.</p> + +<p>Bob had risen from the heap of dirty rubbish which served him for a +bed. His thin cheek glowed with a bright flush of pleasure as he +recognised his benefactor.</p> + +<p>“Is it possible that you live here?—sleep here?” exclaimed the +gentleman; “exposed in this wretched shed, without a fire, to all the +severity of winter?”</p> + +<p>Bob attempted to speak, but was stopped by his cough. Billy, who was +at all times more talkative and ready to reply, answered, “Yes, we lives +here, and sleeps here too, when the cold don’t keep us awake!”</p> + +<p>“And does no one ever come to visit you?”</p> + +<p>“No one but the rats!” replied the child.</p> + +<p>“The rats!” exclaimed Neddy, with a gesture of horror and disgust, +which irritated my vanity not a little. Oddity had none, so he looked +tranquil as usual.</p> + +<p>“Oh, papa!” cried Neddy, “they must not stay here; this horrible hole +is only fit for rats!”</p> + +<p>His father was bending over Bob, feeling his wrist, asking him +questions regarding his +<span class = "pagenum">76</span> +health, with a gentle kindness which goes farther to win confidence and +affection than the cold bestowal of the greatest benefits.</p> + +<p>“You are not well; you must be cared for, my boy. I think that I +could manage to get you into an hospital; you would have every comfort +there.”</p> + +<p>“Please, sir,” began Bob, and stopped; he looked at his brother, and +then raised his earnest eyes to the face of his new friend, and +gathering courage from the kind glance which he met, faltered forth, +“Please, sir, would they take Billy too?”</p> + +<p>The gentleman shook his head.</p> + +<p>“Then—please, sir, I’d a much rather stay here: we han’t never +been parted, Billy and me.”</p> + +<p>I saw Neddy eagerly draw his father aside, very near to my +hiding-place behind the canvass, so that I could hear some of his words, +though they were only spoken in a whisper.</p> + +<p>“Could we not get a lodging?—see here!” He pulled something out +of his pocket, and spoke still lower; but I caught a sentence here and +there: “My Christmas-box, and what aunt gave me, would it be enough?” +his voice was very earnest indeed.</p> + +<span class = "pagenum">77</span> +<p>I saw something which reminded me of sunshine steal over the father’s +face as he looked down on his blue-eyed boy. Then he replied in a quiet +tone, “Yes, enough to provide one till warmer weather comes. I would +myself see that food and needful comforts were not wanting.”</p> + +<p>“And, papa, I have an old suit of clothes; that poor boy is dying +with cold;—just see, his jacket will hardly hold together. Might I +give him my old suit, papa?”</p> + +<p>I read assent in the gentleman’s smile; then, turning to the poor +motherless children, he told them that he could not leave them one night +longer in that miserable place; that he would take them at once to the +dwelling of an honest widow whom he knew, who would watch over the sick, +and take care of the young, for she herself had once been a mother.</p> + +<p>Poor Bob, weakened and exhausted by poor living, looked bewildered at +the words, as though he scarcely understood them, but was ready, without +question or hesitation, to go wherever his benefactor should guide him. +One only doubt seemed to linger on his mind. “Shall I,” said he, in +a hesitating tone, “shall +<span class = "pagenum">78</span> +I still be able to go to my school?—’cause I shouldn’t like to be +a-leaving it now!”</p> + +<p>“Assuredly you shall attend it, my boy, as soon as your health will +permit. I have no means of permanently assisting you; my stay in England +is but short; I can only give you help for a time. But at the school you +will learn to help yourself, and soon, I hope, be independent of any +human aid. I should do you an injury, and not a kindness, were I to +teach you to rest on others for those means of living which a brave and +honest boy desires to earn for himself. Now let us go on to the +comfortable lodging which I mentioned.”</p> + +<p>Billy uttered an exclamation of childish delight, as though the word +had called up before his mind’s eye a warm hearth, a blazing fire, and +smoking viands on a table beside him.</p> + +<p>They all now quitted the place, Neddy appearing if possible more +happy than the delighted little child. But Billy was the last to leave +the shed, in which he had passed so many days of suffering and want. He +lingered for a moment at the door, and looked back with a pensive +expression.</p> + +<span class = "pagenum">79</span> +<p>“You never wish to see that place again, I am sure?” cried Neddy.</p> + +<p>“No, not the place; but—but I should ha’ just liked a last peep +of the pretty spotted rat who used to lead the old blind un by the +stick!”</p> + + + + +<h3><a name = "chapXII" id = "chapXII"> +CHAPTER XII.</a><br> +<span class = "subhead">A NEW ROAD TO FAME.</span></h3> + + +<p><span class = "firstword">It</span> may have been but my +fancy,—it probably was so,—but it seemed to me that Oddity +felt a good deal the departure of his little human friend. I thought +that he missed the lame child who had taken such pleasure in watching +him, and who had found beauties even in his ungainly figure and piebald +skin. It certainly was not that he needed the crumbs which the +half-starved little Billy had stinted himself to throw to him; but I +suppose that it is possible even for rats to grow attached to such as +show them confidence and kindness. I often rallied poor Oddity upon his +melancholy after the boys had been taken away. Bright-eyes told him that +he ought to have been a cat, to sit purring on a mat before the fire, +and lick +<span class = "pagenum">80</span> +the hand of some old maiden lady, who would feed him with porridge and +milk. I said that he should be kept in a gentleman’s house, with a bell +round his neck, as rats sometimes are in Germany, to frighten their +brethren away.</p> + +<p>Oddity took all our taunts very quietly, nibbled his dinner in the +warehouse, but spent most of his time in the shed; where, as he snuffed +along the ground, and fumbled amongst the chipping and the straw, we +used to say that he was searching for little lame Billy, whom he never +would see any more.</p> + +<p>Winter at length passed away. Down the roof of the shed, and through +the hole in it, ran little streams of water from the melted snow. The +west wind blew softly, bending the columns of smoke from the tall +chimneys on shore, and the black funnels of the steamers that went +snorting and puffing down the river.</p> + +<p>On one of the first mild days we found poor old Furry dead in the +warehouse. Life had long been a burden to him, which his unhappy temper +rendered yet more galling.</p> + +<p>I have heard that the rats of Newfoundland bury their comrades when +they die, laying the bodies neatly one beside another, head and +<span class = "pagenum">81</span> +heels placed alternately together. I do not know whether this be true: +it is not the custom of rats in England. We therefore left old Furry +where he lay, close behind a barrel of salt meat, where he was +discovered the next day by one of the men of the warehouse.</p> + +<p>Now, if there be one thing which men usually think more worthless +lumber than another, it is the body of a dead rat. Our skins are not in +England collected and valued as they are in France; the only thought is +usually how to get rid of the unpleasant presence of the dead creature. +And yet, strange to say, the porter did not throw away the body of poor +old Furry: he carried it off to his master. I was very curious indeed to +know its fate; and, after many fruitless inquiries, at length I +discovered it.</p> + +<p>The tooth which had been Furry’s torment in life, was destined to +make him famous after death. Learned men—I know not how +many—examined the head of the rat, looked, wondered, consulted +together; and the end of the matter was, that it was placed as a great +curiosity in some building which is called a museum. There, amidst fine +vases and ancient +<span class = "pagenum">82</span> +weapons, old manuscripts and precious stones, and noble busts of the +wise and great, is the head of poor old Furry preserved, with the mouth +wide open, to display the extraordinary tooth! Fame is a strange thing, +after all. I believe that our friend the rat was not the first, nor will +be the last, to pay a heavy price for the bubble!</p> + +<p>Early in spring, one sunny morn, I received a visit from my old +comrade Whiskerandos. He was full of life and spirits.</p> + +<p>“Ratto,” cried he, “I have often heard you say that you and I should +visit foreign countries together; we’ve a capital opportunity now. A +vessel is to weigh anchor to-morrow. I have been talking to a ship-rat +of my acquaintance, who intends to sail in her, as he has done so +before. He says that she is a capital old vessel, full of first-rate +accommodation for rats; that Captain Blake keeps a very good table; that +there is never any scarcity of pickings; and, in short, I am off for St. +Petersburg, and mean to embark to-night: just say that you will go with +me.”</p> + +<p>“I’m your rat!” I exclaimed, highly delighted. “Would there be room +for Oddity too?”</p> + +<span class = "pagenum">83</span> +<p>“I daresay that there is plenty of room; but—well, well, +Oddity’s an excellent old fellow in spite of his ugly skin; and I’ll +take care that nobody insults him.”</p> + +<p>Off I scampered to Oddity, half out of breath with excitement; and +giving him the news which I had just received, I begged him to accompany +Whiskerandos and myself on a pleasure excursion to Russia.</p> + +<p>The piebald one bluntly declined.</p> + +<p>“Now this is nonsense, Oddity,” cried I; “you must not stay moping +here any longer, pining after a child, and watching for his return, when +he is never likely to come back.”</p> + +<p>“I know he will not come back!” sighed Oddity.</p> + +<p>“Then why don’t you come and shake off this silly gloom? To tell you +the plain truth, Oddity, your mind really requires opening, and there is +nothing like travelling for that. You are, I am afraid, not a +well-informed quadruped. I insist upon your embarking with us to-night, +and we’ll make a rat of you, my good fellow!”</p> + +<p>Oddity shook his head.</p> + +<p>“What! you are resolved not to travel?”</p> + +<span class = "pagenum">84</span> +<p>“Not by water,” was his short reply.</p> + +<p>“He is going into the country with me,” cried Bright-eyes, springing +with a few light bounds to my side. “We’re going to my birth-place, near +the sea-side. We will feast amongst the young corn there; and when the +pea-blossom has faded, and the ripe pods hang temptingly down, we’ll +climb up the stalks and shell them, and banquet on the sweet green +seeds! We’ll revel in the strawberry beds, and try which peach is the +ripest! Oh! merry lives lead the rats in a kitchen-garden, beneath the +bright sun of summer!”</p> + +<p>“I’ve half a mind to go with you myself,” said I, charmed with the +rural description. But I remembered my engagement with Whiskerandos, and +repressed the rising longing to feast upon English fruits, whose names +sounded so tempting.</p> + +<p>“Then farewell, Oddity,” cried I; “I fear I shall never meet you +again.”</p> + +<p>“I’ll come back to the old shed in winter,” said he.</p> + +<p>“But I—ah! where shall I be then? How do I know, once crossing +the sea, whether I shall ever be able to return?” I had not the +<span class = "pagenum">85</span> +faintest idea where Russia might be, or what sort of a place I should +find it; whether its rats are black, brown, or white, fierce as the +Hamster, or gentle as Zibethicus. A feeling of misgiving came suddenly +over me; one fear above all others depressed my heart, and unconsciously +I uttered it aloud: “I wonder whether in Russia rats find plenty to +eat!”</p> + +<p>The snub face of Oddity grew very grave at a question which he could +not answer, and whose importance he felt. But light-hearted Bright-eyes +quickly relieved our apprehensions.</p> + +<p>“If we are to judge of what is in Russia by what comes from it,” he +cried, “I should say that you have little to fear. I examined the +cargo of a Russian ship once, and never did I see a finer collection of +everything that could charm a rat. I say nothing of the +furs,—skins of all kinds of creatures, sables, black and white +foxes, ermines, lynxes, hyænas, bears, panthers, wolves, martens, white +hares—”</p> + +<p>“Stop, stop!” I exclaimed, “we do not want any furs beyond those with +which nature has adorned us.”</p> + +<p>“There was copper, iron, talc, (a mineral resembling +glass—)”</p> + +<span class = "pagenum">86</span> +<p>“We don’t care about them; no rat ever lived upon minerals.”</p> + +<p>“Linen, flax, hemp, feathers—”</p> + +<p>“If there is nothing more nutritious to be had in Russia, why I’d +rather stay at home,” cried I, with a little vexation.</p> + +<p>“What do you say, then, to oil, both linseed and train-oil? to +delicious honey, corn without end, soap, isinglass, and, to crown the +whole, hogsheads upon hogsheads of—tallow!”</p> + +<p>“Enough, enough!” I exclaimed with delight, “Russia is the country +for me.”</p> + + + + +<h3><a name = "chapXIII" id = "chapXIII"> +CHAPTER XIII.</a><br> +<span class = "subhead">HOW I SET OUT ON MY VOYAGE.</span></h3> + + +<p><span class = "firstword">When</span> the passengers of the Nautilus +went on board, the bright sun was glittering on the water, the whole +river was full of life, covered with vessels of all kinds,—the +light boat, the lugger, the steamer, with her gaily-coloured +paddle-boxes and long dark stream of smoke; the heavy coal-barge, +scarcely moving at all, sunk down almost to a level with the water: and +there were sounds of all sorts, both from +<span class = "pagenum">87</span> +the vessels and the shore—puffing of steam, dipping of oars, +creaking of rigging, ringing of bells, shouts and calls, and the +sailors’ musical “yo, heave, yo!”</p> + +<p>But when we went on board a few hours before, all was comparatively +quiet, though the great pulse of life in London never quite ceases to be +heard, even in the middle of the night. When we crept down to the edge +of the shore, the yellow lamps were gleaming around, and the quiet stars +twinkling above, and the young moon was looking down at her own image +dimly reflected in the river.</p> + +<p>“Where is our vessel?” whispered I to Whiskerandos.</p> + +<p>“Yonder; don’t you see her black hull?”</p> + +<p>“But how are we to get to her?” said I. nervously; “I have no +great mind to swim.”</p> + +<p>“Do you mark that dark line that cuts the sky? That is the rope which +fastens her to shore. We will make our way easily along that.”</p> + +<p>I had a tolerably intimate acquaintance with ropes, and the feat was +not a difficult one for a rat; and yet—shall I confess +it?—my heart quaked a little as I followed my leader across +<span class = "pagenum">88</span> +this trembling suspension bridge. I was, however, always unwilling to +show fear in the presence of Whiskerandos, so I concealed even the +relief which I felt when I reached the vessel without a ducking.</p> + +<p>It was indeed a delightful home for rats, and many of my race had +thought so, for the number of us on board certainly trebled that of the +sailors. The majority of our brethren in the vessel were ship rats, +whose appearance so much resembled my own that terms of friendship were +at once established between us. The brown rats kept together in quite a +separate part of the ship,—a wise precaution to avoid the quarrels +and fights which must otherwise have constantly ensued. I consequently +saw less of Whiskerandos during the voyage than I otherwise should have +done.</p> + +<p>I managed to establish myself, audacious rat that I was, in Captain +Blake’s own cabin. I knew that it was a spot of danger,—that much +skill and caution would be required to avoid detection; but I employed +myself industriously in enlarging a small hole, till I had secured for +myself a passage for escape in case I should be discovered, and also the +means of +<span class = "pagenum">89</span> +free communication with the other parts of the ship.</p> + +<p>I need not describe the cabin more than by saying that it appeared to +be a very snug little place. It held both a swinging-cot and a hammock; +and I examined with great curiosity these and other articles of +furniture, as this was the first opportunity which I had had of +observing how man makes himself comfortable. Assuredly his wants are not +so few nor his requirements so simple as ours.</p> + +<p>Early in the day the captain came on board with his son, and after he +had given sundry orders on deck, they both descended to the cabin. +Imagine my surprise when, on their entrance, I recognised my old +acquaintance of the Zoological Gardens, the blue-eyed boy and his +father! I instinctively looked, though in vain, to see if they were +followed by Billy and Bob.</p> + +<p>Soon afterwards the anchor was weighed, and the vessel began to move. +It was to me a strange and new sensation. I had never before experienced +any motion but that of my own little feet.</p> + +<p>Towards evening the motion grew stronger. +<span class = "pagenum">90</span> +The vessel heaved up and down, rocked to and fro; the creaking sounds +above grew louder, and were mingled with a constant splashing noise. +Neddy, who had been very merry and active all day, now on deck, now in +the cabin, asking questions, and examining everything upon which he +could lay his hands, appeared now quite heavy and dull. He complained of +headache, and lay down in his hammock. I thought that the boy was ill. +However, he was lively as ever in the morning.</p> + +<p>Our sea life was rather a same one, after the first excitement of +starting was over. Neddy spent some hours every day in the cabin, poring +over things which I found were called books. I could not at first +comprehend why, when his eyes were fixed on the pages which to me seemed +exactly alike, he should sometimes look grave, sometimes merry, and +sometimes laugh outright, as though some one were talking with him out +of the book. When, however, his father read aloud to the boy, or he read +aloud to his father, I could imagine why they were amused, though I +never could find out by what means the book could make itself heard. I +have often snuffed round the +<span class = "pagenum">91</span> +volumes, and even touched them with my whiskers, but they seemed to me +dead as clay. It must be some wonderful talent, possessed only by man, +which enables him to hear any voice from them.</p> + +<p>There was one large volume in particular, which Captain Blake called +“Shakespeare,” from which he sometimes read extracts to his son. I heard +him say once that this very Shakespeare had been dead for more than two +hundred years. Is it not marvellous that his thoughts, preserved in +leaves of paper in some manner inexplicable to a rat, should survive +himself so long,—that he should make others both laugh and weep +when he himself laughs and weeps no more?</p> + +<p>As may be supposed, I took no great interest in the reading until my +ear was caught one evening by an allusion to my own race in Shakespeare, +“Rats, and mice, and such small deer.” We had then a place in the +wondrous volume; this made me all attention, and more than once that +attention was rewarded by hearing of the race of Mus. One mention both +surprised and puzzled me. The rhyme still rests on my memory:</p> + +<span class = "pagenum">92</span> +<div class = "verse"> +<p>“But in a sieve I’ll thither sail,</p> +<p>And like a rat without a tail,</p> +<p class = "indent">I’ll do—I’ll do—I’ll do!”</p> +</div> + +<p>The <i>do</i>, of course, represents <i>nibble, nibble, nibble</i>; +but the rat without a tail is of some species of which I had never +before heard, and have certainly never met with.</p> + +<p>When Neddy read to his father, it was from a different book; he +called it “History of the French Revolution.” It might have been a +history of my race, for it seemed to be all about rats: democ-rats and +aristoc-rats; “doubtless,” thought I, “tribes peculiar to France.” +Most savage fellows the first seemed to have been—to our race what +tigers are to cats, still more powerful, bloody, and destructive. +I, like others who jump at conclusions, and do not understand half +of what they hear, had made a ridiculous mistake. My vanity had led me +to over-estimate the importance of my family; but a conversation between +Neddy and his father undeceived me, and made me a sadder and a wiser +rat.</p> + +<p><i>Neddy.</i>—“Well, papa, I fancy that we shall have a great +deal to see at St. Petersburg—palaces, churches, gardens, all +sorts of sights! But what I most want to see is the czar +<span class = "pagenum">93</span> +himself, the great autoc-rat of all the Russias.”</p> + +<p>I gave such a start at this, that I dreaded for a moment that I had +betrayed my hiding-place. Here was another rat, and one so singular and +so great, that he was thought more worthy to be seen than all St. +Petersburg besides! I really felt my whole frame swelling with pride; +every hair in my whiskers quivered!</p> + +<p>“Is he really so powerful, papa, as people say that he is?”</p> + +<p>“Very powerful indeed, my boy.”</p> + +<p>“And he’s despotic, is he not? He has no Parliament?”</p> + +<p>“No Parliament!” I repeated to myself; “well, that’s no great matter +in a country so abounding with other good things! But what a rat of rats +this must be, to be so spoken of and thought of by the lords of +creation!”</p> + +<p>“It must be a fine thing to be an autoc-rat, papa, and have no law +but one’s own will!”</p> + +<p>“It is a giddy elevation, Neddy, which no truly wise man, conscious +of human infirmity, would ever covet to attain.”</p> + +<p>“Wise man! human infirmity!” exclaimed +<span class = "pagenum">94</span> +I. These few words, like a touch to a bubble, had burst my high-blown +ideas of family dignity. It was a man, then, one of human race, who +chose to add rat to his name; and these democ-rats and aristoc-rats in +France—why, they must be men too, nothing but men, after all!</p> + + + + +<h3><a name = "chapXIV" id = "chapXIV"> +CHAPTER XIV.</a><br> +<span class = "subhead">A TERRIBLE WORD.</span></h3> + + +<p><span class = "firstword">When</span> I met my old friend +Whiskerandos, it was usually at night, as moving about by day was +dangerous; for who ever showed mercy to a rat, or even thought of +inquiring whether he possessed qualities which might render him +deserving of it?</p> + +<p>“How do you like your quarters?” said Whiskerandos to me one starry +night, when all was still upon deck, and, save one sailor on the watch, +all of humankind were sleeping.</p> + +<p>“They please me well enough,” I replied.</p> + +<p>“For my part,” said Whiskerandos, “I shall be heartily glad when our +voyage is over; and I am half vexed that I ever led you to make it.”</p> + +<span class = "pagenum">95</span> +<p>“Why so? We do not fare ill; we have plenty to eat.” As I have +mentioned before, this is ever the first consideration with a rat.</p> + +<p>“The sailors don’t starve,” said Whiskerandos more slowly; “yet they +think of adding another dish to their mess.”</p> + +<p>“Glad to hear it,” said I; “you know that I am curious about dishes, +and should like to have my whiskers in a new one.”</p> + +<p>“Oh! but they won’t be contented with your whiskers!” cried my +friend, with a funny, forced laugh.</p> + +<p>“What do you mean?” said I quickly.</p> + +<p>“Well, I heard Jack and Tom, two of the sailors, talking together +to-day down in the hold; and there was one word of their conversation +which, I own, struck me like the paw of a cat. That word was—”</p> + +<p>“What was it?” cried I nervously; for if a hero like Whiskerandos +felt anything approaching to fear, I might be expected to be half-dead +with fright.</p> + +<p>He drooped his head for a moment, and uttered one +word—“<i>rat-pies!</i>”</p> + +<p>I started as though I had seen a tabby pounce down from the +rigging!</p> + +<span class = "pagenum">96</span> +<p>“’Tis impossible!” I faintly exclaimed; “human beings never, never +eat rats!”</p> + +<p>“Oh! I beg your pardon!” replied Whiskerandos, regaining his usual +brisk manner; “don’t you remember old Furry telling us that his reason +for quitting China was, that he was afraid of being dished up for the +dinner of some mighty mandarin, whose hair hung in a long tail behind +him? Amongst the lowest classes in France, and the gypsies in England, +we poor rats are known as an article of food; and I have heard that in +the islands of the South Seas we were held in so much esteem, that +‘sweet as a rat’ passed as a proverb.”</p> + +<p>“I don’t like such compliments!” exclaimed I, beginning to tremble +all over.</p> + +<p>“Come, Ratto, you must pluck up a little courage, and show yourself +worthy of the race of Mus! There is never any use in meeting misfortune +half way. To be caught, killed, and put into a pie, is, I grant it, a +serious evil; to be always afraid of being so is another. The first we +may or we may not escape; but the second—which is perhaps the +worse of the two—lies in some degree within the power of our own +will. We need not +<span class = "pagenum">97</span> +make ourselves wretched before the time, about some event which never +may happen.”</p> + +<p>Good philosophy this, I believe, but not a little difficult to act +upon. When I have seen the younger members of that race which proudly +styles itself “lords of creation,” trembling, shrinking, nay—I +shame to say it—even <i>crying</i>, at fear of some possible evil, +a little disappointment perhaps, or a little pain, I have thought of +Whiskerandos and the pies, and fancied that reasoning mortals might +learn something even from a rat.</p> + +<p>I was so terribly afraid of being caught by the sailors, that I +confined myself more than usual to the cabin, keeping close to the hole +that I had made, that I might always be ready for a start should the +blue eyes ever happen to rest upon me; but those books, those famous +books, happily gave them other occupation.</p> + +<p>“Papa,” said Neddy to his father one day, “I should rather have gone +to some other place than St. Petersburg, I feel such a dislike to the +Russians.”</p> + +<p>“Why should you dislike them,” said the captain.</p> + +<p>“Oh! because they were our enemies so +<span class = "pagenum">98</span> +long, and killed so many of our fine fellows!”</p> + +<p>“They were but obeying the orders of their czar—doing what they +believed to be their duty.”</p> + +<p>“But they were horribly cruel, papa.”</p> + +<p>“It would both be ungenerous and unjust to charge upon a whole nation +the crimes of a few individuals. It is singular that one of the most +striking examples of mercy to a foe of which I have ever heard, was +shown by a Russian. The story is given as a fact, and I have pleasure in +relating it, not only from its own touching interest, but from the hope +that it may teach my son what our conduct should be towards those who, +though our foes, are our fellow-creatures still.</p> + +<p>“In the time of the first Napoleon, the French invaded Russia, from +whence they were obliged to retreat, suffering the most fearful +hardships, not only from the usual privations of war, but those caused +by famine and the fearful cold of that northern clime. Thousands and +thousands of brave troops perished in this fatal retreat. The splendid +army which had marched into Russia so numerous and strong, melted away +<span class = "pagenum">99</span> +like a snow-ball! The fierce Cossacks hovered around the lessening +bands, cutting off the weary stragglers who, unable to keep up with the +rest, sank down upon the snow to die!</p> + +<p>“At this fearful time two poor French officers, separated from their +comrades, helpless and exhausted, sought refuge at the house of a lady, +beseeching her to preserve them from the terrible death with which they +were threatened, either from cold and hunger, or the swords of their +enemies. The lady was a Russian,—the officers were her +foes,—she had probably suffered from the devastating march of the +French army,—but she had the heart of a woman. She dared not +conceal the officers in her own house for fear of her servants and the +rage of her countrymen, who would probably have not only slain the +fugitives, but have wreaked their vengeance also upon her for seeking to +protect their enemies. The Russian lady hid them in a wood, at some +little distance from her dwelling, and thither every night, braving both +the danger of discovery and the peril of being attacked by wolves, did +this noble-hearted woman go alone, to bear food and necessaries to the +suffering Frenchmen.”</p> + +<span class = "pagenum">100</span> +<p>“Oh! papa, just fancy hurrying along the snow, with the sharp +winter’s wind cutting like a knife,—and then perhaps to hear a +distant howl, showing that a wolf was on one’s track! Oh! I should not +have fancied those night expeditions!”</p> + +<p>“It would have been noble,” resumed the captain, “to have ventured +thus for a friend,—the Russian lady did so for her enemies.”</p> + +<p>“And were the French officers saved at last?”</p> + +<p>“Yes; by freely giving her money as she had freely risked her safety, +after a while the lady contrived the escape of the fugitives beyond the +frontier. When a considerable time had elapsed, a present of a piece of +plate, which she received from France, showed that the officers were not +ungrateful to their preserver.”</p> + +<p>“She was a generous enemy, papa, and a noble woman. But are not the +common people in Russia very ignorant and bad?”</p> + +<p>“Very ignorant I believe they are, but it would be harsh and wrong to +call them very bad. They are cheerful and good-tempered, and even when +intoxicated they do not show +<span class = "pagenum">101</span> +the ferocity which disgraces a drunkard in England.”</p> + +<p>“But are they not dreadful thieves?”</p> + +<p>“They are said to be very skilful in cheating, and singularly +dexterous in picking pockets. But here again it would be unjust to brand +a whole nation with a disgraceful stigma.<a class = "tag" name = "tag4" +id = "tag4" href = "#note4">4</a> I have another true story for you, +Neddy, and this time it shall be of a poor Russian, a messenger, or as +they call him, an Isdavoi.</p> + +<p>“An English lady living at St. Petersburg gave five hundred rubles<a +class = "tag" name = "tag5" id = "tag5" href = "#note5">5</a> in charge +to an Isdavoi to deliver to her daughter, who dwelt at some distance. On +the following day the Russian returned, kissed the lady’s hand after the +fashion of his country, and said, ‘Pardon me, I am guilty. I cannot tell +how it has happened, but I have lost your money, and cannot find it +again. Deal with me as you please.’”</p> + +<p>“The poor fellow,” continued the captain, “probably expected a severe +flogging, or dismissal from his office, but the lady had no +<span class = "pagenum">102</span> +inclination to punish him with such rigour. Unwilling to ruin the +Isdavoi, she made no mention of his offence, considered the money as +gone for ever, and after a while lost sight of the messenger entirely. +After six years had elapsed he came to her one day with a joyful face, +laden with six hundred rubles, which he brought in the place of those +which had been intrusted to his care. On inquiry it was found that this +honest Russian had for those six years been denying himself every little +pleasure, and by resolute economy had saved up his wages until he had +collected about half of the sum required. He had then married a wife +whose feelings of honour appeared to have been as delicate as his own, +for not only her dower of one hundred rubles was added to his +hard-earned savings, but her little valuables had been sold to make up +the full amount of the money that had been lost!”</p> + +<p>“Oh, papa! what honest people! But did the English woman take all +their money!”</p> + +<p>“No entreaties on her part could induce the poor Isdavoi to take back +the rubles to save up which had been for so long the object of his life. +The lady, however, generously +<span class = "pagenum">103</span> +placed the money in a public bank to accumulate for the benefit of his +children.”</p> + +<p>“Bravo!” exclaimed Neddy, clapping his hands; “that was just how a +lady should behave; and as for the poor Isda—what do you call +him?—he was a fine fellow, and quite worthy to have been an +Englishman!”</p> + +<p class = "footnote"> +<a class = "tag" name = "note4" id = "note4" href = "#tag4">4)</a> +The materials for my little sketch of Russian manners, &c., have +been chiefly drawn from the translation of a work by the German +traveller Kohl.</p> + +<p class = "footnote"> +<a class = "tag" name = "note5" id = "note5" href = "#tag5">5)</a> +A Russian piece of money.</p> + + + + +<h3><a name = "chapXV" id = "chapXV"> +CHAPTER XV.</a><br> +<span class = "subhead">FIRST VIEW OF ST. PETERSBURG.</span></h3> + + +<p>“<span class = "firstword">Cronstadt!</span> Cronstadt!” I heard the +shout from the deck one evening when the sun was going down, and his red +disk seemed resting on the heaving waters, while to the east the strong +fortifications stood clearly defined against the sky, bathed in his +glowing light. Being quite alone in the cabin, for every human being was +on deck, I was taking my survey of the place from the open port-hole +before me.</p> + +<p>It was a very gay scene upon which I looked. Not even on the Thames, +our own river, have I seen a greater variety of craft. Steam-boats, and +sailing-boats, schooners, cutters, brigs and gondolas,—paddled +along +<span class = "pagenum">104</span> +the water, or spread snowy wings to the breeze. I gazed upon them, and +upon the formidable batteries, bristling with guns, which defend the +“water-gate of St. Petersburg” as Cronstadt has been called, till the +shadows of night fell around, and I could without risk of observation, +join Whiskerandos in the hold.</p> + +<p>He was in company with another rat, of rather a foreign +appearance.</p> + +<p>“My friend Dwishtswatshiksky here,” said he, “tells me that we shall +soon arrive at the capital of Russia.”</p> + +<p>“I am very glad to hear it!” cried I; “I long to be again on shore. +If we had any means of landing here, I should not care if I stopped +short of St. Petersburg.” I had not forgotten the pies.</p> + +<p>“You would doubtless, little brother, from natural association, like +to visit Rat Island,” said the stranger with the unpronounceable +name.</p> + +<p>“Rat Island!” exclaimed Whiskerandos and I at the same moment.</p> + +<p>“That fortified island opposite to Cronstadt, lying across the bay +upon which the place stands, and giving to its waters the appearance +<span class = "pagenum">105</span> +of a lake, was called Ratusare, or Rat’s Island in the days of old.”</p> + +<p>“Not the only Rat’s Island in the world,” observed Whiskerandos; “we +have one off the coast of Devon.”</p> + +<p>“And doubtless it still bears that name,” said the Russian rat, with +a graceful wave of his whiskers. “But things, alas! were altered here +when the warriors of Peter the Great drove the Swedes from this island +in 1703. The vanquished left behind them nothing but a great kettle, +which in default of other trophy the Russians reared in triumph on a +pole; so the name of the place has been changed since that time, and Rat +Island is called Kettle Island.”</p> + +<p>“It is fortunate for us, sir rat,” said I, (I did not venture to +attempt to call him by his name,) “it is fortunate for us that before +landing in a strange country, we have met with a friend so intelligent +and well-informed as you appear to be.”</p> + +<p>He made me so many polite assurances of the gratification which he +felt in making my acquaintance, the pleasure which it would give him to +conduct us to the house in which he usually quartered in the city, and +the pride +<span class = "pagenum">106</span> +which he would feel in showing us everything which he could hope would +interest us, that we blunt English rats felt almost abashed at his +excessive courtesy. He only followed the manners of his country, where +the poorest labourer is quite overwhelming in his politeness.</p> + +<p>Dwishtswatshiksky (we soon shortened his name to Wisky) was as good +as his word. We kept close while the passengers landed at a magnificent +quay at St. Petersburg; while the rapid tread of feet, loud voices, +shouts and hurried movements, were heard above, not a rat ventured forth +from his hiding-place. Alas! with every precaution, when we mustered +before landing, our numbers were sadly diminished, though of rat pies we +had heard no more. In darkness we a second time made a suspension bridge +of the rope which bound the vessel to the shore, and with delight I +found myself again upon land, a free denizen of earth, no longer cooped +up in the narrow, dangerous prison of a vessel.</p> + +<p>Wisky led the way, closely followed by Whiskerandos. They moved on so +fast that I was in danger of losing sight of my guides, so apt +<span class = "pagenum">107</span> +was I to linger on my way to look at the wonders around me. It is a +beautiful city, St. Petersburg; at least so it seemed to me in the +moonlight. With its streets of palaces, its lively green roofs, sky-blue +cupolas dotted with stars, gilt spires, columns, statues, and obelisks, +it is a place not soon to be forgotten. If I might venture to suggest a +fault, it is that all looks too perfectly new. Antiquity gives added +interest to beauty,—at least such is the opinion of a rat. That +which looks as if it had risen but yesterday, appears as though it might +fall to-morrow.</p> + +<p>“Would you believe it,” said Wisky, “a great part of this splendid +city is built upon piles! The foundation alone of yonder great church +cost a million of rubles! There is a constant fight going on here +between water and the efforts of man. To look at the fine buildings +around us, you would say that man had secured the victory. He has thrown +over the river a variety of bridges, stone, suspension, and pontoon, +that can be taken to pieces at pleasure, to connect the numerous islands +together, and has raised the most stately edifices on a trembling bog! +But the water is not +<span class = "pagenum">108</span> +conquered after all! I have known houses burst asunder from the +foundations giving way. I have seen a palace separated from the very +steps that led up to its door. And in spring, when the snow melts which +has been collecting for months, the horses can scarcely flounder along +through the rivers of mud in the streets!”</p> + +<p>“Does the water ever rise very high?” inquired Whiskerandos. This was +no idle question on his part; he made it as a practical rat, who knew +what it was to live in a cellar, and had no desire to be drowned.</p> + +<p>“Ah, my dear brother!” replied the Russian rat, “many stories are +still told of the fearful inundation which happened in 1824. Impelled by +a furious west wind, the waters then rose to a fearful height, streamed +through the streets, floated the carriages, made boats of the carts, +nay, lifted some wooden houses right from the ground, and sent them +floating about, with all their inhabitants in them, like so many +men-of-war! Horses were drowned, and so, alas! were rats in terrible +numbers. The trees in the squares were crowded with men, clinging to +them like bees when they cluster! +<span class = "pagenum">109</span> +It is said that thousands of poor human beings perished, and that the +inundation cost the city more than a hundred millions of rubles!”</p> + +<p>“Well, St. Petersburg is a splendid place!” cried I; “but after +all, the merry banks of the Thames, and dear dingy old London for +me!”</p> + + + + +<h3><a name = "chapXVI" id = "chapXVI"> +CHAPTER XVI.</a><br> +<span class = "subhead">A RUSSIAN KITCHEN.</span></h3> + + +<p><span class = "firstword">Under</span> the guidance of Wisky we took +up our abode in a Russian house. House did I call it!—if ever +there was a palace this was one. We established ourselves in the +kitchen; a warm, comfortable place we found it, where we had much +opportunity for observation, both of the denizens of the place and their +various occupations.</p> + +<p>“It seems to me, Wisky,” said I, on the night following that of our +arrival, “that there is no end to the number of servants that pass in +and out of this dwelling! Who is that fellow in the blue cloth caftan, +fastened under his left arm with three silver buttons, and girded round +the waist with a coloured silk +<span class = "pagenum">110</span> +scarf? His fine bushy beard seems to match the fur with which his high +four-cornered cap is trimmed.”</p> + +<p>“That is the Tartar coachman,” replied Wisky; “a dashing fellow +is he, and a bold driver through the crowded streets of the city. The +pretty youths yonder are the postilions. Young and small they must be, +to suit the taste of a Russian noble. The worse for them, poor boys, as +they are less able to endure the bitter cold of a winter’s night, when, +if they drop asleep on their horses, they are never likely to awake any +more!”</p> + +<p>“And are their masters actually cruel enough,” I exclaimed, “to +expose them to such suffering and risk?”</p> + +<p>“My much esteemed brother,” replied the Russian rat, “doubtless your +clear mind has already come to the conclusion that selfishness is +inherent in the human race. A young noble is at a ball; must he quit its +bright enchantments, and the society of the fair whom he admires, +because a bearded coachman is freezing without? A beauteous lady, +wrapped in ermine and velvet, is weeping in the theatre over the woes of +some imaginary heroine; would you +<span class = "pagenum">111</span> +have her dry her tearful eyes, and leave the scene of touching interest +and elegant excitement, because icicles are hanging from the locks of +her little postilion, and his head is gradually sinking on his breast, +as the fatal sleep steals over him? Selfish!—yes, all human beings +are selfish!”</p> + +<p>“There are exceptions to that rule,” thought I, for I remembered the +stories which I had heard in the cabin; and I also recollected the +conduct of their narrator, Captain Blake, towards the starving little +thief in London.</p> + +<p>“I have been trying,” said Whiskerandos, “to count the servants in +this house; but no sooner do I think that my task is done, than in comes +some new one, speaking some different language, wearing some different +costume, and puts all my calculations to fault.”</p> + +<p>“It would puzzle even one possessing the talents of my brother to +count the number of the servants here,” replied Wisky. “Why, +even I, who, before my visit to England, spent months amongst the +household, can scarcely number them now. To begin with the inmates of a +higher rank, who never appear in the kitchen, there are the French +governess and +<span class = "pagenum">112</span> +the German tutor, to polish up the minds of the children, and the family +physician to look after their health. Then there are the superintendent +of accounts, the secretary, the dworezki—he who has charge of the +whole establishment, the valets of the lord, the valets of the lady, the +overseer of the children, the footmen, the buffetshik or butler, the +table-decker, the head groom, the coachman and postilions of the lord, +the coachman and postilions of the lady,—”</p> + +<p>“What!” cried Whiskerandos, “are their carriages so small that they +will not hold two, or are the grandees afraid of quarrelling, that +husband and wife cannot travel together!”</p> + +<p>“Surely, Sir Wisky,” exclaimed I, “you must have come to the end of +your list!”</p> + +<p>“Pardon me, little brother, not yet. There are the attendants on the +boys and on the tutor, the porter, the head cook and the under cook, the +baker, brewer, the waiting-maids and wardrobe-keeper of the lady, the +waiting-maid who attends the French governess, the nurses that take care +of the children, and the nurses that once took care of the children, the +<span class = "pagenum">113</span> +kapell-meister or head musician, and all the men of his band!”</p> + +<p>“Well!” cried I, much amused, “at any rate a Russian noble must be +well served. If he calls for his shoes, I suppose that half-a-dozen +servants start off in a race to fetch them, and knock their heads +together in their eagerness to get them!”</p> + +<p>A valet at this moment entered the kitchen, where, secure in our +hiding-place, we were watching all that passed.</p> + +<p>“Where’s Ivan?” said he, “where’s Ivan?” The coachman, who was +playing at draughts with the head groom, looked up for an instant, then +silently made his move.</p> + +<p>“My lady’s a-fainting, and my lord’s calling for water! Where’s Ivan, +I say? ’tis his business to fetch it.”</p> + +<p>“There’s Ivan,” said the cook, pointing contemptuously to a +sandy-haired figure fast asleep under the table.</p> + +<p>“Get up, ye lazy fellow!” exclaimed the valet; “my lady’s fainting, +my lord’s calling for water; take a glass of it on a silver salver +directly.”</p> + +<p>Ivan got up slowly, yawned, stretched himself, +<span class = "pagenum">114</span> +rubbed his eyes; then, taking a tumbler off the dresser, he leisurely +filled it with water.</p> + +<p>“And where am I to get the silver salver?” said he.</p> + +<p>“That’s in keeping of Matwei the buffetshik,” observed the +table-decker.</p> + +<p>“And where is Matwei to be found?”</p> + +<p>“Here you, Vatka,” pursued the valet, turning to another attendant, +who was busy over his basin of kwas, “go you to Matwei and tell him that +we want a silver salver on which to carry a tumbler, for my lady’s +fainting up stairs, and my lord is calling for water.”</p> + +<p>A loud ring from above was heard, as if to enforce the order. “Sei +tshas! sei tshas!—directly, directly!” called out Vatka; but he +nevertheless finished his kwas, and wiped his mouth before he went to +Matwei the butler to procure the silver salver on which Ivan the footman +would carry the tumbler of water which Paul the valet had been ordered +to bring.</p> + +<p>Before all was ready another messenger came to tell Ilia the bearded +coachman to put to the horses, for the lady was ready for her drive. It +was evident that she had managed to recover from her fainting fit +without the aid +<span class = "pagenum">115</span> +of the glass of water,—a happy thing for one who had the +misfortune to keep fifty or sixty servants.</p> + +<p>Wisky laughed at my look of surprise. “I believe that one pair of +hands,” said he, “often serve better than a dozen. The Russian proverb +says that ‘directly’ means <i>to-morrow morning</i>, and ‘this minute’ +<i>this day week</i>.”</p> + +<p>With quiet night came our feasting-time<ins class = "correction" +title = ", invisible">, </ins>and when the kitchen was deserted by the +crowds of servants, Whiskerandos, Wisky, and I, crept softly out of +our hole, provided with pretty sharp appetites for our meal.</p> + +<p>“I am curious to taste that liquor which you call kwas,” said I; +“Vatka seemed to relish it exceedingly.”</p> + +<p>“Relish it, brother! I should think so!” exclaimed Wisky. “Kwas is to +a Russian what water is to a fish; rich or poor could hardly bear +existence without it.”</p> + +<p>“Not bad at all,” said I, dipping my whiskers carefully into a bowl +that had been set aside by the cook.</p> + +<p>“Mind you don’t tumble in, old fellow!” cried Whiskerandos, “and be +drowned in kwas +<span class = "pagenum">116</span> +as I have heard that a duke once was drowned in wine.”</p> + +<p>“And what may this kwas be made of?” inquired I, after another +approving sip.</p> + +<p>“I ought to know, little brother,” replied Wisky, “for many and many +a time have I seen it brewed. A pailful of water is poured into an +earthen jar, into which are shaken two pounds of barley-meal, half a +pound of salt, and a pound and a half of honey. The whole is then placed +in an oven with a moderate fire, and constantly stirred. It is left for +a time to settle, and in the morning the clear liquor is poured off. In +a week it is in the highest perfection.”</p> + +<p>“I wonder that kwas is not made in England,” observed I; “but +honey is not so plentiful there.”</p> + +<p>“Sugar would make a good substitute, I should think,” said Wisky; +“the beverage would not then be an expensive one. But here is our +beloved Whiskerandos busy with his shtshee, the dish of all dishes in +this country, that which nothing, I believe, could ever drive from the +table or the heart of a Russian. When in a foreign land, it is said, it +<span class = "pagenum">117</span> +is not the remembrance of native hills or plains, or the tender delights +of home, that draws tears into an exile’s eyes, but the loss of his +beloved shtshee, the favourite dish of his childhood.”</p> + +<p>“Leave a little for me!” I cried eagerly to Whiskerandos, who had +nearly finished, by dint of steady perseverance, a portion which had +been left in a plate. “Why,” I added, as I tasted the liquid, “this +seems to me simply cabbage soup!”</p> + +<p>“Whatever my brother may think of it,” observed Wisky, dipping his +whiskers into the nearly empty plate, “he is now tasting that which +forms the principal article of food of forty millions of human beings! +Better live without bread than without shtshee.”</p> + +<p>“And the ingredients?” said I, for I always delighted to pick up any +scrap of information interesting to a rat.</p> + +<p>“There are almost as many ways of making shtshee as of cooking +potatoes. I have seen six or seven cabbages chopped up small, half a +pound of butter, a handful of salt, and two pounds of minced mutton +added, the whole mixed up with a can or two of kwas. But it is now time, +brothers, for us to sally forth. +<span class = "pagenum">118</span> +I must do the honours of this our city, and show my illustrious guests +whatever I may deem worthy of their observation.”</p> + + + + +<h3><a name = "chapXVII" id = "chapXVII"> +CHAPTER XVII.</a><br> +<span class = "subhead">A RAMBLE OVER ST. PETERSBURG.</span></h3> + + +<p>“<span class = "firstword">What</span> a nation of painters Russia +must be!” exclaimed I, as we quietly moved through the silent +streets. Every shop had a picture before it, expressive of the +occupation of its owner. Here was a tempting board covered with +representations of every loaf and roll that a painter’s fancy could +devise; there a tallow-chandler did his best to make candles appear +picturesque. Even from the second and third floors hung portraits of +fiddles, and flutes, boots, shoes, caps, bonnets, and bears’ grease, and +on one board a sad likeness of a rat in a trap made us quicken our steps +as we passed it.</p> + +<p>We moved through a deserted market. Here whole lanes are devoted to +the sale of a single kind of article. There is the stocking row, the +shoe row, the hat row, at which it appeared +<span class = "pagenum">119</span> +that a whole nation might have provided covering for head and for +feet.</p> + +<p>“I wish, dear brother,” said Wisky, “that your visit had been in the +season of winter. I could then have led you to a market which strangers +must indeed have surveyed with surprise. You would then have seen +beasts, fishes, and fowls, all frozen so hard that the hatchet is +required to divide them. You would have passed through rows of dead +sheep standing upon their feet, motionless oxen that seemed ready to +low, whole flocks of white hares appearing actually in motion, reindeer +and elks on whose mighty horns the pigeons fearlessly perch!”</p> + +<p>“The cold must then be fearful in winter,” said I.</p> + +<p>“Oh! the houses are kept so warm with stoves that there but little +suffering is known. But woe to the men who loiter in the streets when +they are paved with ice and glistening with snow! The passengers run for +their lives, with the sharp wind rushing after them, as a cat after a +mouse! Men cover even their faces with fur; but should an unlucky nose +peep out from the warm shelter, the bitter +<span class = "pagenum">120</span> +frost often bites it on a sudden. “Father—father! thy nose!” thus +will one stranger salute another as he passes; and if not speedily +rubbed with snow, the nose of the poor passenger is lost! Men’s very +eyes are sometimes frozen up, and they have no resource but to beg +admission at the first door to which they can grope, to unthaw their +glued lashes at a stove!”</p> + +<p>“All this is very curious,” observed I, “but still I have little +desire to witness it. The long winter must be dreary indeed!”</p> + +<p>“The Russians are lively fellows,” observed Wisky, “and instead of +grumbling at dark skies and piercing blasts, they make merry where +others would murmur. When winter must perforce be their companion, they +oblige the grim old giant to add to their amusements. You should see the +gay sledges as they dash at full speed over the frozen surface of the +River Neva! and the ice-mountains which the people raise, and down which +they glide swift as lightning, laughing, shouting, and singing! I have +seen snow piled up to the very roof of a house; and down its steep +slope, merely seated on a mat, a large merry party glide +<span class = "pagenum">121</span> +gaily to the ground. But,” he cried, suddenly interrupting himself, +“have a care where you tread, my brother, or you will be down into that +ice-pit! Never was there such a place as St. Petersburg for +these,—no large house is deemed complete without one. If Russians +<i>cannot</i> be without abundance of ice in winter, they show that they +<i>will</i> not be without it during their brief hot summer,—the +quantities consumed could scarcely be believed!”</p> + +<p>Whiskerandos, who had been lingering behind us, in a tempting quarter +of the market, now scampered up and joined us. We were passing at the +time a large building, and I could not avoid looking up in wonder at its +strange columns. Of these there were no fewer than a hundred, and the +capital of each was formed by three cannon, with their round open mouths +yawning down into the street.</p> + +<p>“This,” said our guide, following the direction of my eyes, “is the +Spass Preobrashenskoi Sabor; a church greatly adorned with the spoils of +nations vanquished by Russia.”</p> + +<p>“Well,” said Whiskerandos, who in the course of his adventurous life +had both seen cannon and learnt their use<ins class = "correction" title += "text has . for ,">, </ins>“perhaps those +<span class = "pagenum">122</span> +big instruments of war are just as well up there, where they are seen, +and not heard or felt. Man is the only creature, I fancy, who, not +content with what powers of destruction nature has given him, cuts down +trees from the forest, digs iron from the mine, sets the furnace +glowing, and the engine working, to fashion means of killing his +brothers in a wholesale manner.”</p> + +<p>“Yonder,” said Wisky, pointing with his nose, “are the father of the +Russian fleet and the grandmother of the houses of St. Petersburg.”</p> + +<p>“Let’s see them by all means!” I exclaimed; “I have viewed plenty of +Russian ships and Russian houses, and I have a lively curiosity to see +the father and the grandmother of so famous a family!”</p> + +<p>Wisky rapidly led the way to a hut, into which with little difficulty +we entered, for locks and bars do not keep out rats, nor surly porters +refuse them admission.</p> + +<p>“Is this the father of the Russian fleet!” exclaimed Whiskerandos +rather contemptuously, running, audacious rat that he was, along the +edge of a boat about thirty feet long. “Is +<span class = "pagenum">123</span> +Russia a child, that she should amuse herself with a toy, and keep a big +boat under a roof where there is no water to float it, as if it were +some delicate jewel!”</p> + +<p>“On no jewel in the Emperor’s crown,” replied Wisky, “would a Russian +look with the same interest as on that poor boat. Peter the Great helped +to fashion it himself! He found his country without a navy, and he gave +her one; he laboured himself as a common ship-wright: and now, as a +mighty oak springs from a single acorn, in that one boat his people view +with reverence “The father of the Russian fleet<ins class = "correction" +title = "no second ”">.”</ins></p> + +<p>“And where is the grandmother of the houses?” inquired I.</p> + +<p>“That is hard by,” replied Wisky. “It is nothing but a small wooden +cottage which Peter built for himself by the Neva, before a single +street stretched across the dreary bog upon which he founded this city +of palaces!”</p> + +<p>And so we rambled on, light-hearted rats that we were, picking up +scraps here and there, and exchanging observations, till a faint blush +in the eastern sky warned us that it was time to go home. Before we +reached the house +<span class = "pagenum">124</span> +already criers were abroad in the streets, screaming, “Boots from +Casan!”—“Pictures from Moscow!”—“Flowers, fine flowers!” as +they wandered on, carrying their wares on their heads. Fierce-looking +fellows, with long shaggy hair and beards, wrapped up in skins were +passing about, exchanging good-natured greetings, strangely in contrast +with their appearance. “Good-day, brother! how goes it? what is your +pleasure? how can I serve you?” Smiling, bowing, baring their rough +heads to each other, these poor Russians appeared the very pictures of +politeness shrouded in sheepskin. But remembering that even amongst the +most civilized nations of the world, rats are considered as quite beyond +the pale of courtesy, and that the most good-natured Musjik in this city +would have thought nothing of hitting one of us over with his shoe, we +thought it better to retreat while our skins were whole, and regain our +comfortable quarters in the kitchen.</p> + + + + +<span class = "pagenum">125</span> +<h3><a name = "chapXVIII" id = "chapXVIII"> +CHAPTER XVIII.</a><br> +<span class = "subhead">HOW WE WERE TRANSPORTED.</span></h3> + + +<p><span class = "firstword">It</span> was my intention, as well as that +of Whiskerandos, after hearing of the cheerfulness of a Russian winter, +and the comfort preserved in the houses, to remain to witness the +ice-mountains, the frozen Neva, and, above all, the wonderful market +which Wisky had described to us on that night.</p> + +<p>Our intentions, however, were frustrated, and our projects of +amusement defeated by an incident which suddenly altered the whole +course of our affairs.</p> + +<p>Whiskerandos, who was of a very bold and independent disposition, +cared not to place himself constantly under the guidance of his Russian +companion. He made forays by himself into the streets, moon or no moon, +it was all one to him. He brought us back accounts of many singular +adventures,—how he had been seen by a dog, chased by a cat, and +nearly run over by a drosky, the name given to the vehicles which in St. +Petersburg take the place of our London cabs.</p> + +<span class = "pagenum">126</span> +<p>“Have a care, brother, have a care! Even the brave may dare too much, +and the fortunate venture once too often!” with such exclamations as +these our courteous Russian rat would listen to the tales of such +hair-breadth escapes.</p> + +<p>The effect of his words upon me was to render me +cautious,—timid perhaps you will call it. The only motives which +usually roused me to encounter danger, were hunger, or overpowering +curiosity. I liked to see all, hear all, and know all, and picked up +scraps of general information with the same relish that I would have +picked up scraps of cheese.</p> + +<p>Once Whiskerandos came home in high spirits. He had made such a +discovery, found such treasures,—been in the very place where of +all others a rat might rejoice in boundless content.</p> + +<p>Directly behind the Exchange he had found a large open space, fenced +round with iron railing, which, while keeping out man, offered +everywhere a door of welcome to rats. Here, protected by nothing but +tarpaulin, was collected a quantity of goods, both those which had been +imported into Russia, and those with +<span class = "pagenum">127</span> +which she paid back from her own productions the contributions of the +world.</p> + +<p>“Oh, the mountains of tallow which I saw there!” exclaimed +Whiskerandos, executing a somerset in the air, in the excess of his +admiration and delight.</p> + +<p>“There may well be mountains, brother,” observed Wisky, “since, +besides the quantities which she uses herself, Russia is said to export +every year about <i>two hundred and fifty millions of pounds</i> of +tallow, of which above one half is shipped from St. Petersburg<ins class += "correction" title = "” missing">.”</ins></p> + +<p>“Two hundred and fifty millions!” I exclaimed, almost breathless with +amazement, “why, surely that is enough to light up the whole world, and +feast every rat that is in it! I would give anything to see the place +where such glorious mountains are to be found<ins class = "correction" +title = "printed as shown: may be error for !">?”</ins></p> + +<p>“Trust yourself with me to-morrow night, and I will guide you to the +place,” said Whiskerandos.</p> + +<p>Now commenced a conflict in my mind, caution pulling me one way, +curiosity the other, while a discussion took place between my comrades, +Wisky backing caution, Whiskerandos +<span class = "pagenum">128</span> +curiosity,—and the English rat won the day.</p> + +<p>So that night off we two scampered together, and without accident or +adventure reached the space at the back of the Exchange. Truly I was in +a world of wonders! I actually revelled in everything that can charm the +palate or the nose of a rat! Here was the division for Russian +imports,—various and curious were they. There were chests of tea +from China, coffee from Arabia, sugar from the West Indies, and English +cotton goods, bales on bales piled up to a marvellous height. There was +a quantity of tobacco, heaps of cheese, spices of all sorts and kinds. +Now we came upon the odour of cinnamon or cloves; then the strong +perfume of musk betrayed an importation from India.</p> + +<p>No wonder that the hours passed unheeded while we lingered in this +wonderful place! We passed on to the portion of the area devoted to +Russian exports, and here we were, if possible, still more delighted! +All the articles which Bright-eyes had mentioned as coming from Russia +were here; we were bewildered amongst heaps of furs, piles of +<span class = "pagenum">129</span> +leather, barrels of tallow, and prodigious quantities of corn! Morn was +breaking, indeed, but we could not tear ourselves away, till the sounds +of life, and the signs of motion around us, alarmed me with the idea +that it was too late to retreat.</p> + +<p>“Let’s bury ourselves in this corn-sack,” cried I, “we can sleep here +very well during the day, and recommence our explorations after +dark.”</p> + +<p>Whiskerandos acceded to my proposition. Quiet we kept, very quiet. +Noisier the world seemed to grow, till at length voices were heard so +alarmingly near, that I crouched closer to my companion in terror!</p> + +<p>Then—oh! the horrible sensation which I +experienced,—never shall I forget it! I felt that our sack was +roughly pushed by some one, then suddenly lifted on high!</p> + +<p>“We are lost!” I gasped to Whiskerandos. Then another sort of motion +succeeded, accompanied by a heavy rumbling sound, like that of the +rolling wheel of a truck. Every hair of mine quivered with fear!</p> + +<p>“Whiskerandos! oh, Whiskerandos! if they should be carrying us to a +mill!—if we should +<span class = "pagenum">130</span> +be ground into powder between two great stones!”</p> + +<p>“Be quiet and never despair,” was the answer of the bold-hearted +rat.</p> + +<p>I believe that that terrible journey did not last long, but to me the +time appeared an age! Every turn of the grating wheel beneath me sent a +pang of anguish through my frame! At last the truck, if such it were, +stopped; in a few minutes the sack was again rudely moved, carried +aloft, and then tumbled, with its living contents, +down—down—we could not tell where!</p> + +<p>What a shock it gave me, that tumble! I lay for some seconds quite +stunned. My first impulse, when I recovered a little, was bitterly to +bewail my condition, and to reproach him who had brought me into it.</p> + +<p>“Oh that I had been content with my kwas and my shtshee! Oh that I +had never left the kitchen! that I had never ventured forth with a +reckless companion, who would, I believe, play at hide and seek with a +cat, or nibble at the pocket of a rat-catcher!”</p> + +<p>My tone was, I knew, both peevish and provoking; and many a brown +rat, in the +<span class = "pagenum">131</span> +position of my companion, would have stopped my doleful squeaking at +once by giving me something to squeak for. But Whiskerandos, whatever +were his faults, was above that mean one of quarrelling with those who +found them out, or attempting to screen and defend them.</p> + +<p>“Ratto, I am sorry that I have led you into trouble,” said he. +“I wish that I could suffer alone for my self-will and imprudence. +But since no regrets can recall the past, let us not make our miseries +greater by reproaches and dissension between those who may soon die, as +they have lived, together.”</p> + +<p>His mildness quite overcame any feeling of bitterness in my heart; +and hope revived as some time elapsed without fresh cause for alarm +occurring.</p> + +<p>“I wonder where we are!” exclaimed I, shaking myself into a more easy +position.</p> + +<p>“I fancy that I hear the creaking of a windlass!” cried +Whiskerandos.</p> + +<p>“And the flapping of canvass!” added I. “And I smell tar.”</p> + +<p>“A strong odour of tar! Depend upon it, we are down in the hold of a +ship!”</p> + +<span class = "pagenum">132</span> +<p>“Ha! that’s the ripple of water! she moves,—she moves!”</p> + +<p>We were again afloat on the waters!</p> + + + + +<h3><a name = "chapXIX" id = "chapXIX"> +CHAPTER XIX.</a><br> +<span class = "subhead">A STORM AND ITS CONSEQUENCES.</span></h3> + + +<p>“<span class = "firstword">Farewell</span> St. Petersburg, stately +city! with thy flat green roofs, and star-spangled domes! Farewell +merry-hearted, sandy-haired Russians, bearded Tartars, gay +Circassians,—never may we behold you again! Farewell kwas and +shtshee, and all the luxuries for too brief a time enjoyed! Where are we +going now,—where!”</p> + +<p>Such were the complaints which I was wont to pour out during the long +tedious voyage which succeeded. Whiskerandos never grumbled, it was not +in his nature; he quietly fed on his corn without uttering one +melancholy word: but I suspected that he, like myself, associated +sailors with rat pies; and to hear any one approach the hold, drove me +almost wild with terror.</p> + +<p>That was a horrible voyage! A fearful +<span class = "pagenum">133</span> +tempest came on before the vessel readied the place of her destination, +whatever that might be. The winds whistled and raged, and the ship +reeled and plunged like a restive horse; and again and again torrents of +salt water came sweeping down into the hold! Then, as the furious storm +continued, the very seams of the ship seemed to open like pores, to let +in the sea, which was knocking and raging without for admittance, till +at length the hold became like a ditch, which we rats could not cross +but by swimming!</p> + +<p>Then the pumps were set to work—I could hear the men toiling at +them day and night; yet the water gained on them notwithstanding their +efforts. There were tremendous noises on deck; I fancied once or twice +that I could distinguish human cries; and what with the constant +splashing of the water as the vessel rolled heavily from side to side, +and the bumping and thumping of some casks that had got loose, and were +smashing against one another, and the shouting, and the roaring of wind +and waves, there was enough to stun and terrify any creature, be he +quadruped or biped!</p> + +<span class = "pagenum">134</span> +<p>Such of the corn as remained in our sack was becoming so soft from +salt water that it had acquired the consistence of a pudding. But we had +now no heart even to eat!</p> + +<p>We had so often heard the captain’s voice raised to give loud orders, +that we had ceased to pay any particular attention to them, little +dreaming that any would concern us further than as they regarded the +safety of the vessel. But at length the result of an order to lighten +the ship was speedily felt in the hold! Our sack (for we still made it +our hiding-place) was suddenly lifted with others; and before we had +time even to guess what was intended, splash we went into the sea!</p> + +<p>Ugh! how the water bubbled in our ears! What frantic efforts we made +to free ourselves from the sack! Nor were those efforts without success, +for we had long ago gnawed the string which fastened its mouth: it +opened with the motion of the waves, and corn, rats and all, floated +upon the surface of the raging billows!</p> + +<p>Down in two seconds went the corn, swallowed up by the sea; still we +struggled, drowning rats that we were, to save ourselves +<span class = "pagenum">135</span> +by desperate swimming. Of course our strength must soon have been +exhausted, and the mighty green waves must have swept us to destruction, +had not a barrel, thrown out from the ship, been happily floating near +us!</p> + +<p>Whiskerandos saw this little island of hope. As for me, I was too +much frightened and confused to look around me; but I instinctively +followed where he led, and soon found myself, shivering, shaking, +dripping with wet, and looking as wretched as a rat can look, on the +floating barrel beside my friend!</p> + +<p>How we shook our glistening sides, and shuddered and gazed +disconsolately round us on the wide waste of waters, lashed into long +streaks of angry foam! Alas! there was no land in sight; but then the +white mist rested on the horizon, which shut out the distant view.</p> + +<p>“If we are not drowned we shall be starved!” exclaimed I, very +piteously, to Whiskerandos. Alas! our barrel was empty.</p> + +<p>Oh! the misery endured that day, and the terrible night which +succeeded! We had no resource but to gnaw at the tasteless wood. We were +surrounded with water, yet perishing +<span class = "pagenum">136</span> +with thirst! pinched by hunger, without hope of relief! Better to have +been drowned at once; better to have fallen by the paw of a mouser, or +to have been caught like my brothers in a trap, than to be dying thus by +inches on a barrel, tossed in the midst of the sea!</p> + +<p>But with the gray morning hope dawned! We perceived that our little +island had drifted near to some shore. The waves were now much more +quiet, and leapt on the beach with a pleasant murmur, and strove to roll +on, each farther than the other, like children merrily racing +together.</p> + +<p>“Could we not swim to the shore?” said Whiskerandos.</p> + +<p>But I recoiled from the dangerous attempt. “No, no; some wave will +roll the barrel on the beach,” I replied; “no more struggling in the +water for me!”</p> + +<p>And the waves, bearing the barrel on their green backs, seemed often +ready to land it safely on shore, but each time changed their minds, and +kept it bobbing up and down, while they retired back with a grating +noise over the pebbles, as if mocking our distress and impatience.</p> + +<span class = "pagenum">137</span> +<p>“We are farther off now than we were ten minutes ago,” said +Whiskerandos. “Perhaps the tide is on the turn. Pluck up a brave heart, +and let’s dash in like rats!” and he plunged fearlessly into the +water.</p> + +<p>But for the sharp spur of hunger, I fear that I should have left him +to make the bold attempt alone; but, famished as I was, I resolved to +swim for my life. With a sudden effort I sprang into the waves; and so, +following in the wake of my companion, I struggled in safety to the +shore!</p> + +<p>Oh! the delight of feeling dry ground again!—of standing once +more on the firm, solid earth! Never, never again, I firmly resolved, +would I venture in any vessel, or trust my life to the mercy of the +billows that had so nearly accomplished our destruction.</p> + + + + +<h3><a name = "chapXX" id = "chapXX"> +CHAPTER XX.</a><br> +<span class = "subhead">CATCH HIM—DEAD OR ALIVE!</span></h3> + + +<p><span class = "firstword">We</span> made a hasty breakfast off a +star-fish that we found stranded on the beach; but this rather increased +our painful thirst, and to find +<span class = "pagenum">138</span> +some means of quenching it we hurried inland at the utmost speed which +our weakened powers could command. We had not run far before we came to +a large house.</p> + +<p>“There is sure to be a supply of water here,” said Whiskerandos. “Let +us explore the place.”</p> + +<p>“I fancy that I hear a dripping!” I cried eagerly, as we approached +the door of the back-yard.</p> + +<p>The door was indeed closed, and sharp bits of broken bottles, on the +top both of it and the brick wall, rendered it impossible to climb over +them; but I—my wit quickened by my painful +thirst—discovered in a moment that, at the bottom of the door, +part of the wood had been broken away, either by time or perhaps the +teeth of our brethren, leaving an opening just large enough for a rat +easily to creep through.</p> + +<p>I was not one to venture on an unexplored region, so I looked +anxiously through into the yard.</p> + +<p>At the opposite side of it there was—oh, joyful sight!—a +pump, from which drop by drop fell, with a most inviting sound, into a +trough below. And yet, faint with thirst as +<span class = "pagenum">139</span> +I was, the place had an aspect which alarmed me, and made me fear to +venture across the yard. Not far from the pump, and between it and us, +was an open green door, which led into a garden or pleasure-ground, and +though I could see nothing to alarm me, my quick ear distinguished +suspicious sounds in that direction.</p> + +<p>“In with you!” exclaimed Whiskerandos, impatiently. “Don’t keep me +here, dying with thirst at the hole.”</p> + +<p>I drew back with a gesture of caution. “Whiskerandos,” said I, +“I don’t like the green door open yonder. If any one came through +it into the yard and cut off our retreat!”</p> + +<p>“Nothing dare, nothing win!” he exclaimed; “I am thirsty and I must +have water:” and, hurrying through the little opening which I have +mentioned, he was soon eagerly drinking at the trough.</p> + +<p>Hesitating, doubting, I was about to follow him, and already my nose +was through the hole, when a sight, at the remembrance of which I +shudder still, made me withdraw it instanter. Through the fatal green +door near +<span class = "pagenum">140</span> +the pump, a young man, with his hands in his pockets and his cap cocked +on one side, followed by several dogs, leisurely sauntered into the +yard.</p> + +<p>I saw in an instant that for Whiskerandos escape was impossible. He +had the whole length of the yard to cross; his foes were far nearer to +him than me. His only chance was that of not being perceived; but this +in broad daylight, with the noses of three or four dogs not two yards +from him, was a miserable chance indeed. The dogs instantly found him +out, and were at him in a moment. My unhappy companion darted behind the +trough, quick as a flash of lightning. I felt assured that he would +there bravely defend himself to the last; but what could one poor rat +do, albeit the boldest of his race, against such terrible odds!</p> + +<p>“Ha! a rat!” exclaimed the young man, looking quite amused and +pleased—barbarian that he was!—at the prospect of seeing a +poor defenceless creature torn to pieces before him. “Ha! Carlo, give it +him!—shake him by the ear!” The young man actually laughed aloud +with delight!</p> + +<p>I could not see Whiskerandos, for the trough +<span class = "pagenum">141</span> +was between us: I fancied his look of fierce despair as he faced the +foes from whom he could not flee, and from whom he could expect no pity. +He had evidently got into some corner, from which the dogs could not +easily dislodge him; for they stood yelping and barking, showing their +white teeth, with their greedy eyes all turned to one point.</p> + +<p>So the human savage came to their aid. Having taken up a stick which +happened to be lying on the ground near, while the dogs retired a step +to allow their master to give his ungenerous assistance, he pushed the +stick behind the trough, and by its means dragged poor Whiskerandos from +his last place of refuge!</p> + +<p>“Ha! the fellow’s dead! I must have killed him with the stick!” cried +the young man; and stooping down he lifted up the poor rat by the tail, +and held him aloft to examine him more closely, while the dogs leapt and +barked around, eager to tear their victim limb from limb!</p> + +<p>“He’s been in the wars—lost his ears!” laughed the young man, +still holding the stiffened body on high by the tail. “I’m sorry +<span class = "pagenum">142</span> +I poked him with the stick; he’d have given us some sport with the +dogs!” Did ever such a heartless monster walk on two feet before!</p> + +<p>“Oh! Whiskerandos! Whiskerandos!” thought I, as, almost rooted to the +spot with horror, I stood gazing on the pitiful sight. “I am glad +that you are dead! oh, I am glad that you are dead! bravest, noblest of +rats, they can torture you no more!”</p> + +<p>The dogs showed by their impatient movements that they considered +that their master took a great deal too much time in his survey of a +lifeless rat I suspect that he only did so to tease and tantalize them, +for suddenly raising Whiskerandos still higher, to give more force to +his fling, he cried, “Now Carlo—Rover—Cæsar—who’s +first!” and swung the body away towards the door behind which I stood a +trembling, shuddering spectator!</p> + +<p>But lo and behold! no sooner did the seemingly dead rat touch the +ground, than he found life, strength, and speed in a moment! The dogs +were after him like the wind, but the very force of the fling had given +him a good start, and he was through the opening under the door, +knocking me over as he pushed +<span class = "pagenum">143</span> +past, almost before I could recall my scattered senses sufficiently to +understand that he was actually alive! I have some remembrance of the +young man’s exclamation of amazement as the dead rat found his feet and +disappeared,—his shout, and the yells of the disappointed +dogs,—but I recollect no more, for I heard no more. Whiskerandos +and I had a fair start, and we made the best of it, and scampered off as +rats scamper for their lives. Well for us that that door was +locked!—well for us that there were broken bits of bottles on the +top! well for us that the hole was too small for the passage of any +thing larger than a rat!</p> + +<p>I do not think that we were pursued: perhaps the unlocking of the +door took our foe too much time, perhaps he did not think it worth while +to hunt down such ignoble game, or perhaps he considered (but this I +much doubt) that the cleverness which a rat had shown in making so +extraordinary an escape, entitled him to a little indulgence. But we ran +as though a whole pack of hounds were behind us; we never paused to take +breath or look behind us, till we had buried ourselves in a +corn-field.</p> + +<span class = "pagenum">144</span> +<p>“And are you really unhurt?” I exclaimed, when we stopped at last, +panting and exhausted.</p> + +<p>“Unhurt? yes!—only bruised by the fling,—it was well that +the yard was not paved with stones.”</p> + +<p>“And you were really alive and had your senses while that savage was +holding you up with your head hanging down! Why, you looked as like a +dead rat as ever I saw one!”</p> + +<p>“I was wide awake all the time,” said Whiskerandos, “but I knew that +it was my only chance to feign death. This has been a narrow escape, +Ratto; I was never so near being torn to pieces before, not even in my +fight with the ferret!”</p> + +<p>“I’ll never go near a house in daylight again!” exclaimed I, +still trembling with excitement and terror. Whiskerandos appeared to +feel the effects of the fright less than I did, though his danger had +been so much greater.</p> + +<p>“It is your thirst that makes you so nervous,” said he; “you have not +yet recovered from our voyage on the barrel. There seems to be a wet +ditch around this field; come and moisten your nose in the water.”</p> + +<span class = "pagenum">145</span> +<p>The relief was certainly great, and as I drank the cool liquid, I +felt my spirits revive.</p> + +<p>“I wonder where we are now!” said I.</p> + +<p>“I have no doubt on the subject,—we are in old England again! +The look of the house, the hedges, the fields, that young +fellow—”</p> + +<p>“Oh! don’t speak of him!” I exclaimed, “cruel, barbarous monster that +he is!”</p> + +<p>“You are too hard on him,” said Whiskerandos, in his own frank, +good-humoured manner. “He may be no worse than the rest of his species, +who think that there is no harm in being cruel to a rat. I suspect that +even your blue-eyed friend would shout with joy to see a cat worry a +mouse!”</p> + +<p>“I don’t believe it!” I replied indignantly; “a generous and noble +heart can never take pleasure in seeing pain inflicted on a poor +defenceless creature!”</p> + +<p>“Ah, but—” Whiskerandos commenced, but our conversation was +suddenly interrupted by a little squeak from the hedge close behind +us.</p> + +<p>“I think that I know that voice!” exclaimed I, and I had hardly +uttered the sentence ere from the thick covert sprang the +well-remembered form of Bright-eyes!</p> + + + + +<span class = "pagenum">146</span> +<h3><a name = "chapXXI" id = "chapXXI"> +CHAPTER XXI.</a><br> +<span class = "subhead">A NEW KIND OF WATCH-DOG.</span></h3> + + +<p><span class = "firstword">What</span> a rubbing of noses ensued! +after all my travels and perils it was such joy to see again the face of +a friend! I had so much also to relate, (I have ever been a +loquacious rat,) that I almost lost breath in my long narration. I wound +up my account with a description of the last adventure of Whiskerandos, +who was now, in my eyes, ten times more a hero than before.</p> + +<p>“And now that I have told you my news,” said I, “let’s hear a little +of yours. In the first place, where is old Oddity?”</p> + +<p>Bright-eyes hung down his head, and drooped his long tail in a +touching and melancholy manner. Such conduct in so lively a rat showed +me at once that my last surviving brother was dead!</p> + +<p>“How did it happen?” was all that I could say.</p> + +<p>“Not a week after our arrival in these parts, he was caught in a +hay-rick by a farmer!” faltered Bright-eyes. “I saw him seized by +<span class = "pagenum">147</span> +the neck, I heard his despairing cry; I could not stay to see the poor +fellow killed, and I was afraid of sharing his fate, so I made off as +fast as I could.”</p> + +<p>“Poor Oddity!” sighed I very mournfully, “never was there an uglier +nor a better-hearted rat! Ah! what pleasure I vainly promised to myself +in relating to you all my adventures! I have been across the deep +waters, encountered various perils, now in danger of being cooked in a +pie, now shivering on a barrel in the ocean, and yet here am I safe and +sound after all; while you, remaining quietly in England, have +ignominiously perished in a hay-rick!”</p> + +<p>Whiskerandos, who, being a brown rat, could not be expected to feel +the same regret as myself, now turned towards Bright-eyes, and asked him +how far we were from London—“For I long to be back in my old +quarters,” said he.</p> + +<p>“A fortnight’s journey for a rat, should he travel by land,” replied +Bright-eyes: “we came down very comfortably in a river boat, which +carried us to within five miles of this spot.”</p> + +<p>“I have had enough of water for some time,” said Whiskerandos; “and +now that the fields are full of ripe corn, and the gardens of fruit, +<span class = "pagenum">148</span> +nothing so pleasant as a journey by land! What say you, friend Ratto?” +inquired he.</p> + +<p>“I have no mind for a long journey either by land or by sea,” replied +I in a melancholy tone; “I’ll keep company with you for a day or two, +Whiskerandos, but I would rather not return now to London. I will settle +quietly for a time in the country near the spot where poor Oddity +died!”</p> + +<p>“And you?” said Whiskerandos, turning to Bright-eyes.</p> + +<p>The lively rat shook his ears with all his natural vivacity. “Pardon +me,” he cried, “but I’m of Oddity’s opinion,—heroes like Sir +Whiskerandos are the very worst travelling companions in the world! How +Ratto has escaped with his life I cannot imagine, but I shall certainly +not try the experiment of following your fortunes for an hour! I’ve no +fancy to be baked in a pie, or starved on a barrel, crushed by a drosky, +or worried by a dog, drowned in a sack, or suspended by my tail! No, no, +valiant Whiskerandos, I’m quite content to admire your courage at a +distance, but I don’t want to share your exploits, and would rather have +my ears than your fame!”</p> + +<span class = "pagenum">149</span> +<p>And off skipped the merry little rat, before we could say a word to +stay him.</p> + +<p>Whiskerandos and I, being weary enough with the adventures through +which we had passed, slept for the greater part of that day in the +field, and wandered about during the night in a not vain search for +food.</p> + +<p>The next day was remarkably hot. It was the season of harvest, and we +felt the necessity of keeping quietly concealed, as many men, and women +also, were busily engaged in the fields. The heat, however, produced +thirst, and no water was near in which we could quench it.</p> + +<p>“I say, Ratto,” observed Whiskerandos, “do you see yonder object, +near that sheaf, that glitters so brightly in the sun?”</p> + +<p>“It is a can,” replied I, “doubtless belonging to one of the +reapers.”</p> + +<p>“I should not wonder if there were a <ins class = "correction" title += "spelling unchanged">hunch</ins> of bread and cheese beside it,” said +Whiskerandos.</p> + +<p>“I should not be surprised if there were.”</p> + +<p>Whiskerandos remained for a minute in silence, then said, +“I want to compare English beer with Russian kwas.”</p> + +<span class = "pagenum">150</span> +<p>“You are not going into the field!” I cried in alarm.</p> + +<p>“I am going,—why, there is nothing to fear; there is not a +reaper near, and if there were, he would need to be a sharp fellow who +could catch a rat in an open field!”</p> + +<p>So the daring fellow went on his way, and I, after peeping cautiously +on this side and that, to make sure that no human being could see us in +the stubble, hurried after my companion, being to the full as curious as +himself to make acquaintance with the contents of the can.</p> + +<p>There was a bundle of something beside it, tied up in a large red +handkerchief, something of a very inviting odour. But scarcely had +Whiskerandos, who was foremost, touched the reaper’s dinner with the end +of his whiskers, when something jumped up suddenly from behind the +bundle, and the voice of a rat fiercely exclaimed,—“Keep off, or +I’ll bite you!”</p> + +<p>Whiskerandos looked surprised at the unexpected defiance, but my +feelings of amazement can scarcely be conceived when I recognised, +(could it be!) the dumpy form, blunt head, and piebald skin of my lost +brother Oddity!</p> + +<span class = "pagenum">151</span> +<p>I rushed forward with a squeak of delight! No doubt, though less +eager and excited in his manner, Oddity also was greatly pleased at +meeting with his brother again. He looked, however, suspiciously from +the handkerchief to Whiskerandos, and again desired him to “keep off,” +with a resolution of which I had never dreamed the piebald rat +capable.</p> + +<p>“What is in that bundle, that you guard it so carefully?” +said I, after we had rubbed noses again and again, with every +expression of affection.</p> + +<p>“The property of my master,” replied my brother.</p> + +<p>“Master!” exclaimed both Whiskerandos and I in amazement, “who ever +heard of the master of a rat! Since when have you taken upon yourself +the office of a watch-dog, to guard what belongs to our enemy, man?”</p> + +<p>“Since man first showed mercy to one of the race of Mus, since he +spared a defenceless rat when in his power. I know you, Whiskerandos, I +know you,” continued Oddity, the hairs bristling up on his back, as my +companion, either in jest or earnest, took the corner of the +handkerchief between his sharp teeth: +<span class = "pagenum">152</span> +“you are reckoned a hero amongst rats, but I too can fight in defence of +what is confided to my charge; you have killed a ferret, and you may +kill me, but while I have a tooth in my jaw, or a drop of blood in my +body, you shall not touch a crumb belonging to my master!”</p> + +<p>Whiskerandos would have been more than a match for three Odditys, for +the piebald one had neither his strength, nor agility, nor experience in +fighting; but the strong rat seemed at this juncture to have no +inclination to give battle to the weak one. I hope that it will be +considered no sign of cowardice on his part, that he quietly dropped the +corner of the handkerchief, and never even attempted to examine the +contents of the can.</p> + +<p>Of course I was all curiosity to know every particular of my +brother’s deliverance. In his own quiet, homely way, he told me his +simple tale, keeping, however, all the time, a watchful eye upon the +bundle beside him, while Whiskerandos acted the part of a sentinel to +give me timely warning if any human being should approach so near as to +endanger our safety. I will tell the story of Oddity as nearly as I can +in his own words, I only wish that I could describe +<span class = "pagenum">153</span> +the expression of his bluff, honest face, at various parts of his +narration.</p> + + + + +<h3><a name = "chapXXII" id = "chapXXII"> +CHAPTER XXII.</a><br> +<span class = "subhead">THE FARMER AND HIS BRIDE.</span></h3> + + +<p>“<span class = "firstword">I was</span> caught one evening in a +hay-rick. A swift-footed creature like you, Whiskerandos, might perhaps +have escaped, but I was never remarkable for agility or speed. I felt a +strong hand grasping me by the back of my neck, and I gave myself up for +lost.</p> + +<p>“‘Well, here’s an odd creature,—a piebald rat! I take it that’s +quite a curiosity!’ cried the farmer who held me in his grasp. I +expected that he would dash me against the wall the next moment, and +then set his heel upon my poor body!</p> + +<p>“‘I wonder whether Mary ever saw the like of it before,’ he +continued, examining me with attention; ‘I’ll put it in the empty +wire-cage, and try if I cannot tame it for her.’</p> + +<p>“Here was a reprieve, and a most unexpected one. No one who has not +believed himself to be just on the point of being smashed, can tell +<span class = "pagenum">154</span> +how glad I was when I was set loose from the farmer’s <ins class = +"correction" title = "text reads ‘terribe’">terrible</ins> <ins class = +"correction" title = "archaic form unchanged">gripe</ins>, though only +to find myself in a cage!</p> + +<p>“But soon the longing for liberty came. I attempted to gnaw through +the wires, but they resisted my utmost efforts. The farmer watched me, +spoke to me, gave me food—treated me like a creature that could +feel. That man has a gentle and kindly heart! At length I grew +accustomed to my master, and to see him approach my prison with food was +the only pleasure of my life. He ventured his finger between the bars, +and I never attempted to bite it. He released me at last from my cage, +and gave me a far warmer, snugger home—in the pocket of his own +great-coat!”</p> + +<p>At this point in the story Whiskerandos and I uttered expressions of +amazement.</p> + +<p>“Wherever he went,” continued Oddity, “I went too. He taught me many +things altogether new to a rat. It is our nature to take what we can +get,—he taught me to see food and not to touch it! He never +suffered me to feel hungry: he conversed with me as though I were a +little companion, and never one blow did I receive from his hand, or one +kick +<span class = "pagenum">155</span> +from his heel! It was not in the nature of a quadruped to be insensible +to kindness like this!”</p> + +<p>“And yet you owed it all to your piebald coat!” exclaimed I. +“Never was beauty such an advantage to a four-footed beast as ugliness +has been to you!”</p> + +<p>“I found,” pursued Oddity very quietly, “that Will Grange, my master, +was going to London, to be married to the young woman whom he had spoken +of as Mary. We travelled to the city together, I snugly sleeping, coiled +up in his pocket.”</p> + +<p>“And were you given to the lady?” said Whiskerandos.</p> + +<p>“I was placed before her on a table, in a quiet little back-parlour, +in which she and my master sat together. She admired my appearance.”</p> + +<p>“No, no!” interrupted I, “that’s impossible, I can believe anything +but that!”</p> + +<p>“Well, then, she wished to gratify my master by appearing to do so. +She praised me, and fed me from her hand, and said that such a rat she +never had seen in her life. Then I crept under my master’s chair, and +<span class = "pagenum">156</span> +there very quietly remained, while he and his Mary talked over future +plans together.</p> + +<p>“He told her of the various things that he had bought to make his +home more comfortable for his wife. How he had planted the garden +himself with all her favourite flowers, and twined honeysuckle over his +porch. Then he took her hand within his own, and in a lower and softer +voice asked her if she were happy.</p> + +<p>“‘Very happy,’ she replied, looking on the ground, while her cheek +grew like a cloud at sunrise; ‘only I cannot help feeling +sorry,’—her voice trembled a little as she spoke,—‘sorry to +leave father, and home, and the dear children in the ragged school whom +I have taught so long!’ I fancy,” continued my brother, “that something +like a dewdrop glistened on her lashes.</p> + +<p>“‘Well, Mary,’ said the farmer heartily, ‘father will come and see +us; and as for your old home, why, you get a new one in exchange, and +fair exchange is no robbery, you know. Then for your ragged children, +why, I’m wanting an active, steady boy on my farm, and though I’ve no +great fancy for your pale-faced Londoners, yet if you know any +<span class = "pagenum">157</span> +really good one, we’ll take him down with us into Kent.’</p> + +<p>“You should have seen how much pleased the young teacher looked! She +knew one, she said, a poor motherless boy,—she would be so glad to +give him a helping hand. He was one of the best boys in the +school,—she would trust him in a room full of gold!</p> + +<p>“So it was agreed between them that she should speak to the lad, and +tell him to call in the evening.</p> + +<p>“In the evening he accordingly came. I had again taken my place under +the farmer’s chair, and was just falling into a doze, when I was roused +by a gentle knock at the door. Mary’s cheerful ‘Come in!’ was followed +by the entrance of,—whom do you think?”</p> + +<p>“Bob and Billy!” I exclaimed at a venture.</p> + +<p>“Yes, Bob and Billy!” repeated Oddity, with a look of great glee; +“I had never thought to have seen them again! And they were so +changed, I should scarcely have known them. Bob, in particular, looked +so much taller, and stronger, and oh! so much happier than he had done +last year! He was no more the wretched, joyless, hopeless creature, +cowering +<span class = "pagenum">158</span> +in rags, one that even rats might look on with pity; he had a bright, +fearless eye, and hopeful smile; and if ever a face expressed gratitude +and affection, it was his when he looked on his gentle young +teacher!</p> + +<p>“‘I beg pardon for bringing Billy,’ said he, modestly but frankly, +‘I was afraid to let him go home quite alone.’</p> + +<p>“The farmer spoke in his kindly manner to the boy. He offered him a +place on his farm, and Bob’s eyes sparkled, and his cheek flushed with +pleasure. It was but for a minute; the brightness and the glow faded +away as he glanced down at his little lame brother. I saw that Billy was +squeezing his hand,—that squeeze served all the purpose of +words.</p> + +<p>“‘Thank ’ee, sir,’ said the boy, glancing first at the farmer, then +at his teacher, ‘but I think as how—I should +rather—leastways I had better stay and earn my bread here in +Lunnon.’</p> + +<p>“‘And how do you earn it?’ inquired the farmer<ins class = +"correction" title = "text has extraneous ’">. </ins></p> + +<p>“‘Please, sir, I clean boots,’<a class = "tag" name = "tag6" id = +"tag6" href = "#note6">6</a> answered the boy; ‘I am one of the +yellow brigade.’</p> + +<span class = "pagenum">159</span> +<p>“There was such a look of cheerful independence on the little +fellow’s face, that no one could have glanced at him and doubted that +his bread was honestly earned.</p> + +<p>“‘And would you rather stay here and rub in blacking,’ said the +farmer, ‘than be out in the open fields? Yours is an odd taste, I take +it! Would you not rather come with us?’</p> + +<p>“‘Oh, sir!’ said Bob, uneasily, shifting from one foot to the other, +while Billy was squeezing his hand harder than ever, and looking half +ready to cry, as he pressed closer to his side; ‘you see I could not +leave him behind,—poor lame Billy, he’s no one to care for him but +me.’</p> + +<p>“‘That’s it, is it!’ cried the farmer, clapping his knee. ‘Well, +Mary, what say you? could we take the two with us do you think? If +they’ve always been together, poor fellows, ’twould be a pity to part +them now!’</p> + +<p>“Bob’s only answer was a look of pleasure and gratitude, but little +Billy almost burst into tears of delight as he exclaimed, ‘Oh, yes! +please, sir, take me too!—take me too! I’ll do +anything,—I’ll work,—I’ll make baskets for your fruit.’</p> + +<span class = "pagenum">160</span> +<p>“‘And coops for my poultry, hey? We’ll find some way of making you +useful.’ And he turned to Mary with that smile which I think that all +human beings wear when they are doing some act of kindness.</p> + +<p>“I was so much pleased,” continued Oddity, “at this conclusion to the +affair, that I ran out from my place beneath the chair. Billy uttered a +cry of surprise:</p> + +<p>“‘There—look! if that an’t my own pretty spotted rat!’”</p> + +<p>Here I rather rudely interrupted my piebald brother. “Pretty! did he +call you pretty? well, well, I shall be obliged to think you so myself, +I suppose. Spared by a man, petted by a woman, admired by a +child,—and all for your beauty,—Oddity’s beauty!” I could +not help laughing outright at the thought.</p> + +<p>“My ugliness has at least done me no harm,” he replied, with a +meekness which made me more ashamed of my rudeness than if he had fired +up at my ridicule.</p> + +<p>“And so you live all together here?” said Whiskerandos; “this farmer, +his wife, the two boys, and you?”</p> + +<p>“Yes, and we are as happy as the day is long.”</p> + +<span class = "pagenum">161</span> +<p>“Humph!” said Whiskerandos; “I should prefer my wild freedom; but it +is different, I suppose, with man. And as for you, Oddity, you were +never like other rats; you were always intended for a watch-dog. And you +really guard that can and parcel for hours, and resist the temptation to +nibble?”</p> + +<p>“I am trusted,” was the simple reply.</p> + +<p>“Now, Oddity,” said I, “I should much like to see you in your new +home, surrounded by all your human companions.”</p> + +<p>“Yonder is my master’s house,” answered Oddity, pointing across the +field with his nose. “You have but to clamber up to the window in the +evening, and peep through the clustering roses, and you will see us all +there together.”</p> + +<p>“I’ll have a peep,” said Whiskerandos, “and then off to old London +again!”</p> + +<p>“You must take nothing from my master’s house,” cried Oddity.</p> + +<p>“Not a potato paring!” laughed our valiant companion.</p> + +<p>“And now I would advise you to be off,” said my brother; “here’s my +master coming for his dinner.”</p> + +<p>Away we scampered at full speed, my <ins class = "correction" title = +"hyphen invisible at page-end">light-footed</ins> +<span class = "pagenum">162</span> +comrade and I; for well we knew what was certain to be our fate if +caught even by the kind-hearted farmer. We were only rats after all.</p> + +<p class = "footnote"> +<a class = "tag" name = "note6" id = "note6" href = "#tag6">6)</a> +In the course of a single year no less than <i>two thousand nine hundred +and eighty-one pounds</i> were honestly earned in this manner by 132 +boys connected with ragged schools!</p> + + + + +<h3><a name = "chapXXIII" id = "chapXXIII"> +CHAPTER XXIII.</a><br> +<span class = "subhead">A PEEP THROUGH THE ROSES.</span></h3> + + +<p><span class = "firstword">That</span> night, when the round harvest +moon was throwing her soft light on the earth, we climbed up the +rose-tree by the window, and, quietly pushing aside the fragrant +flowers, peeped in upon such a scene as rarely meets the eye of a +rat.</p> + +<p>There was a neat little kitchen, with a sanded floor and white-washed +walls, so clean, so perfectly clean, that not even the sharp eyes of the +race of Mus could have detected a speck upon them. Rows of plates lined +the shelves on the wall, pans burnished till they shone like silver, a +framed sampler hung over the mantelpiece, and a large clock merrily +ticked behind the door. Near the wide hearth there was a table, on which +a substantial supper was spread on a cloth white as new-fallen snow.</p> + +<span class = "pagenum">163</span> +<p>Round this table were seated the farmer, his wife, and our two old +friends, Bob and Billy, in their clean smock-frocks, with country roses +on their once sickly and sunken cheeks. One might have read Will +Grange’s character in his kind, honest face; and his wife looked like a +morning in May, all sweetness, brightness, and beauty,—such beauty +as is not merely skin-deep.</p> + +<p>The farmer tapped gaily on the table, and at the signal, Oddity, whom +I had not at first perceived, clambered up to his knee, and from thence +jumped on the cloth, to be fed from his master’s hand. He made his round +of the party,—every one had something to give him; and I heard the +merry voice of Billy as he patted his favourite’s snub nose,—“He’s +a pretty little fellow! now, an’t he? I wonder what’s become of the old +blind rat that he used to lead about in the shed?”</p> + +<p>“Whiskerandos,” said I, pensively, to my companion, “I could +almost wish myself in Oddity’s place!”</p> + +<p>“So do not I,” he replied quickly, as he turned from the window. “One +rat in ten millions may be petted and trusted, and show +<span class = "pagenum">164</span> +himself worthy of the trust; but our race was never intended by nature +to hold the position of lap-dogs or cats.”</p> + +<p>“And are we always to be hated by the lords of creation, never to be +useful to man?”</p> + +<p>“We are useful to man,” said my companion.</p> + +<p>“Ah! in those places where he bakes us in pies, or makes hats or +glove-thumbs of our poor skins. But in London—”</p> + +<p>“When you join me in London I will show you, friend Ratto, how, by +acting the part of a scavenger, and clearing away that which, if left, +would poison the air, the race of Mus does good service to man.”</p> + +<p>“Little man thanks us for it!” cried I.</p> + +<p>“Well, Bob,” said the farmer, as he leant back in his chair, and +watched, with an air of amusement, his piebald favourite nibbling at a +nut, “is it true what my good wife here tells me, that the post this +morning actually brought a letter for you?”</p> + +<p>“From Master Neddy,” exclaimed Bob, with sparkling eyes.</p> + +<p>“He’s come back from Russy, and so has his father, and they’re so +glad to be in old +<span class = "pagenum">165</span> +England again,” cried Billy, as in old times the most ready to speak. +“The letter was sent first to the school,—the dear old +school!—for they warn’t to know that missus was married, and we so +snug down here in the country. Oh! won’t they be pleased to hear it? And +is it not good in them, after all their travels, not to forget poor boys +like us? Do you know, there was money in the letter?” he added, lowering +his voice.</p> + +<p>“Ah! Captain Blake did you some good turn, did he not?” said the +farmer to Bob.</p> + +<p>“He saved me from—” the boy coloured and paused,—</p> + +<p>“From want, I suppose,” said Grange, ending his sentence for him, and +stroking back Oddity’s sleek ears.</p> + +<p>“From worse,” said Bob, looking down.</p> + +<p>“Not from death?”</p> + +<p>“Worse than that,” murmured the boy.</p> + +<p>“Eh?” said the farmer, in surprise.</p> + +<p>“But for him what should I have been now! Oh sir!” cried Bob, +suddenly raising his eyes, “I’ve often thought I should have told you +this before,—before you took me in here,—me and my brother +too,—and treated us so +<span class = "pagenum">166</span> +kindly, and trusted us and all. You should have known what I was before +that day when Captain Blake—bless him for it!—first took me +into a ragged school.”</p> + +<p>“My business is with what you are, not what you were,” said the +farmer, kindly; but Bob did not seem to hear the interruption, for he +continued, in an agitated voice, the tears rising into and then +overflowing his eyes:—“He found me a poor, ignorant, miserable +creature, not knowing so much as that it was a sin to take what was not +my own. He found me with no comfort and no hope, going on the broad way +which leads to the prison and the gallows; and worse,—worse +beyond,—I know that now. He found me a wretched thief, and he did +not hate me, despise me, despair of me: he gave me a chance, he gave me +a friend! Blessings on him!—he saved me from ruin!”</p> + +<p>Here let me drop the curtain, here let me close my tale. These are +feelings, these are scenes, into which higher beings alone can enter; +they are too solemn for a story like mine.</p> + +<p>And here I and my companions divide;—I +<span class = "pagenum">167</span> +to luxuriate for awhile in the plenty with which rich autumn crowns the +fields around; my bold comrade to return to the city, and there, in new +adventures, to display a sagacity and courage which even the lords of +the creation would admire if belonging to any race but ours; Oddity, in +the happy home of his kind master, remains to share the board and the +hearth,—an instance that even a rat can show fidelity to man, +where man can show mercy to a rat!</p> + +<p>Perhaps the human race would despise us less proudly, and persecute +us less severely,—perhaps even boys would take less pleasure in +torturing, worrying, and hunting us down,—if our characters and +instincts were better known. Who can say that some truth may not be +learned, some lesson of kindliness gained, even from a narration simple +as mine,—the history of</p> + +<h6>THE RAMBLES OF A RAT.</h6> + + +<p class = "illustration"> +<img src = "images/dec_167.png" width = "180" height = "76" +alt = "decoration"></p> + +</div> +<!-- end div maintext --> + +<div class = "endnote"> +<h4><a name = "endnote" id = "endnote">Transcriber’s Notes</a></h4> + +<p>At the time this book was written, rats were classified as <i>Mus +rattus</i> and <i>Mus norvegicus</i>. The genus <i>Rattus</i> did not +become standardized until the 20th century.</p> + +<h5>“The Family of Mus”</h5> + +<p>By some classifications, all the animals that appear in <a href = +"#chapVII">Chapter VII</a> are part of the superfamily <i>Muroidea</i> +within the rodent family.</p> + +<div class = "hanging"> +<p>German Hamster: <i>Cricetus cricetus</i>, the black-bellied +hamster.<br> +The European hamster is at least twice the size of the Syrian +or golden hamster. Its personality is much as described.</p> + +<p>Musk-rat: <i>Ondatra zibethicus</i></p> + +<p>Lemming: <i>Lemmus lemmus</i></p> + +<p>“... the Musk Cavy, which I have heard of as inhabiting Ceylon and +other places in the East”<br> +Possibly the hutia, <i>Capromys pilorides</i>, although hutias are +indigenous to the West Indies, especially Cuba, not Asia.</p> +</div> + +<h5>Reconstruction</h5> + +<p><a name = "endnoteA" id = "endnoteA" href = "#endtagA">A.</a> +A pair of facing pages are slightly damaged:</p> + +<p class = "illustration"> +<img src = "images/60_61_facing.png" width = "480" height = "84" +alt = "page image"></p> + +<p>Text shown in <i>italics</i> was reconstructed from context or from +the opposite page:</p> + +<div class = "hanging"> +<p>Page 60:<br> +We there<i>fore</i> set out<br> +dogs and cats in t<i>he</i> streets</p> + +<p>Page 61:<br> +my <i>good</i> friends<br> +not<i>w</i>ithstanding the darkness<br> +observe<i>d</i> that I have</p> +</div> + +</div> + +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<hr class="full" noshade> +<p>***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE RAMBLES OF A RAT***</p> +<p>******* This file should be named 29863-h.txt or 29863-h.zip *******</p> +<p>This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:<br> +<a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/9/8/6/29863">http://www.gutenberg.org/2/9/8/6/29863</a></p> +<p>Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed.</p> + +<p>Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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