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diff --git a/29863.txt b/29863.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..feace4d --- /dev/null +++ b/29863.txt @@ -0,0 +1,4098 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Rambles of a Rat, by A. L. O. E. + + +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 www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: The Rambles of a Rat + + +Author: A. L. O. E. + + + +Release Date: August 30, 2009 [eBook #29863] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE RAMBLES OF A RAT*** + + +E-text prepared by Louise Hope + + + +Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this + file which includes the original illustrations. + See 29863-h.htm or 29863-h.zip: + (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/29863/29863-h/29863-h.htm) + or + (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/29863/29863-h.zip) + + +Transcriber's note: + + At the time this book was written, rats were classified as + _Mus rattus_ and _Mus norvegicus_. The genus _Rattus_ did + not become standardized until the 20th century. Notes on + the animals in Chapter VII are at the end of the e-text, + along with the Errata. + + + + + +THE RAMBLES OF A RAT. + + + [Illustration: POORER THAN RATS. + + "The old blind rat had a bit of stick in its mouth, and the pretty + black rat took the other end in his teeth." --Page 25.] + + +THE RAMBLES OF A RAT. + +by + +A. L. O. E. + + + [Illustration: A NEW KIND OF WATCHDOG. + + "Whiskerandos looked surprised at the unexpected defiance; but my + feelings of amazement can scarcely be conceived when I recognised + the dumpy form, blunt head, and piebald skin, of my lost brother + Oddity." --Page 150.] + + + + + + + +T. Nelson and Sons, London, Edinburgh, and New York. + + + + +THE RAMBLES OF A RAT + +by + +A. L. O. E., + +Author of "The Giant-killer," "Pride and his Prisoners," +&c. &c. + + + + + + + +[Decoration] + + +London: +T. Nelson and Sons, Paternoster Row; +Edinburgh; and New York. +1864. + + + + +PREFACE + + +Let not my readers suppose that in writing THE RAMBLES OF A RAT 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 on the subject which appeared in the "Quarterly +Review." + +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! + + A. L. O. E. + + [Decoration] + + + + +CONTENTS + + + Chap. Page. + + I. The Family of Rats 9 + II. A Clap-trap Discovery 15 + III. Poorer than Rats 19 + IV. How I made a Friend 26 + V. How Bob met with an Adventure 33 + VI. How I visited the Zoological Gardens 38 + VII. Finding Relations 43 + VIII. How I heard of Old Neighbours 51 + IX. How we found a Feast 59 + X. The want of a Dentist 67 + XI. A Removal 74 + XII. A New Road to Fame 79 + XIII. How I set out on my Voyage 86 + XIV. A Terrible Word 94 + XV. First View of St. Petersburg 103 + XVI. A Russian Kitchen 109 + XVII. A Ramble over St. Petersburg 118 + XVIII. How we were Transported 125 + XIX. A Storm and its Consequences 132 + XX. Catch him--Dead or Alive! 137 + XXI. A new kind of Watch-dog 146 + XXII. The Farmer and his Bride 153 + XXIII. A Peep through the Roses 163 + + + [Decoration] + + + + + [Illustration: A L O E] + + +THE RAMBLES OF A RAT. + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +THE FAMILY OF RATS. + + +My 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. + +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. + +We were of an ancient race of British 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. + +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, 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 it amiss, nor retired into a +corner of the shed to sulk, amidst rope-ends and bits of rusty iron. + +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! + +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. + +"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--" + +The brotherhood of rats whisked their tails for joy! + +"Sugar--" + +There was a universal squeak of approbation. + +"Indigo--" + +"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. + +"Opium--" + +"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." + +"What effects?" said I. I was a very inquisitive rat, and especially +curious about all 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. + +"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!" + +"Ugh!" exclaimed Brisk; "leave opium to man; it is a great deal too bad +for rats!" + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +A CLAP-TRAP DISCOVERY. + + +With 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. + +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. + +"Isn't that called ivory?" said Oddity, as he waddled past me. + +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 should delight in travelling and seeing the world!" + +"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!" + +I was so busy with my tusk and my reflections, that I scarcely looked +up; but Oddity turned his eyes eagerly towards the spot. + +"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!" + +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! + +Poor unhappy brothers! all caught in a 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! + +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! + +"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. + +"Cruel, wicked man!" he repeated, but in a different tone from mine; +"well, I think that even when setting a trap to catch inexperienced +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!" + +"Are there any creatures that lay traps for man?" said I, in the +bitterness of my spirit almost hoping that there might be. + +"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." + +"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 lost by the big +man-trap, he takes good care never to go near it himself." + +"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!" + +"So this is your account of the wise creature man!" I exclaimed; "he is +a great deal more foolish than any rat!" + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +POORER THAN RATS. + + +We 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. + +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 come forward, we seemed to +frighten them as much as they had frightened us. + +"Look there-- there, Bob!" screamed the younger child, clinging more +closely to his brother. + +"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. + +"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!" + +"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. + +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 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! + +"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." + +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 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. + +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. + +"Oh! look-- look, Bob! what a funny rat! what a beauty rat!" he cried, +clapping his bony hands together with childish glee. + +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." + +"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!" + +"Eh, what did ye see?" replied Bob, drowsily, rubbing his eyes with the +back of his hand. He looked very hungry and tired. + +"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." + +"A blind rat!" cried Bob; "'twould soon starve, I take it." + +"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." + +"I'se never heard of rats doing that afore," said Bob. + +"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?" + +"Ate them," was Bob's quiet reply. + +"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!" + +"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!" + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +HOW I MADE A FRIEND. + + +I always 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. + +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 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! + +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. + +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 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. + +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." + +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 it, doubtless attracted, as the +former victims had been, by a very enticing scent. + +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. + +"Stop! stop!" squeaked I, keeping, however, at a respectful distance; +"you are running right into a trap!" + +Whiskerandos turned sharp round and faced me. I retreated back several +steps. + +"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. + +"You'll pay for your dainty feast if you go one foot farther!" +I exclaimed; feeling, I confess it, very angry. + +"Who's afraid!" cried the boaster, flinging up his hind legs with a +saucy flourish as he scampered on. Clap! he was caught in the trap! + +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! + +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. + +"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!" + +"Agreed!" I cried; "let's rub noses upon it!" and noses we accordingly +rubbed. + +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! + +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. + +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 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. + +"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 Thermopylae." + +"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." + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +HOW BOB MET WITH AN ADVENTURE. + + +I was 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?" + +"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. + +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. + +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. + +"Oh! Billy!" he exclaimed, and burst into tears. + +"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. + +"And see this!" said Bob; and he wrapped round the shivering child a +warm cloak which he had carried on his arm. + +Billy opened his eyes with an expression of astonishment, which +brightened into joy as he felt the unwonted warmth. "Oh! Bob!" he +exclaimed, with his mouth full of bread; "where did you get this? +Did you steal it?" + +"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. + +"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. + +"I followed he-- a fine, tall gemman. I had my fingers in his pocket, +and he clapped his hand on 'em, and catched me!" + +"Oh!" exclaimed Billy, with eyes and mouth wide open, in alarm. "And +did he not call the beaks, and have you up?" + +"No; he spoke to me; he spoke so kind-like. He told me that I was about +a 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!" Then he takes me a good way round, down a little lane, +right into a Ragged School." + +"What's that?" inquired Billy curiously. + +"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." + +"Did the gemman say all that?" exclaimed Billy. + +"And a great deal more. Such beautiful talking! And to see how gentle +and kind he looked, as if he didn't think me such a bad un after all!" + +"Did you tell him of me?" asked Billy anxiously. + +"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." + +"Did he though?" cried Billy, much surprised. "And will you go to the +Ragged School, Bobby?" + +"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!" + +"And won't you take me with you too?" said little Billy. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +HOW I VISITED THE ZOOLOGICAL GARDENS. + + +That 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. + +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 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. + +"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." + +I had never seen a cat in my life, but I started instinctively at the +name. "Take me anywhere," I exclaimed, "take me anywhere that you will, +so that I never come in sight of one of those terrible creatures!" + +"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!" + +"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!" + +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." + +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 gardens without paying +toll, or in any way obtruding ourselves on the notice of man. + +"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!" + +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. + +"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?" + +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.* 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. + +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 with eagerness to a small barred division, +from whence a feeble squeak proceeded. + + + [* I am not aware whether the Zoological Gardens at present + contain specimens of the curious rats described in the following + chapter.] + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +FINDING RELATIONS. + + +"Well, 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!" + +"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. + +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 eating up every thing green. But this +pair, as was evident from their conversation, had been natives of a +country called Lapland. + +"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!" + +"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!" + +"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 +together, while the white bear growls in his prison alone, and the lofty +camel has no companion near him." + +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. + +"'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!" + +"Not going to sleep!" I repeated in some surprise, thinking to myself +that so peevish a creature must certainly be best in his sleep. + +"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." + +"But at any rate here you are well fed," I suggested. + +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. + +"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. 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!" + +"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. + +"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. + +"How were your pouches the cause of your being taken?" inquired I. + +"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 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!" + +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. + +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. + +"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. + +"Well," he replied, good-humouredly, "some naturalists, and I believe +the great Linnaeus 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 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." + +"I am delighted," said I, with a wave of my whiskers, "at this +opportunity of paying my respects to so dignified a relation." + +"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." + +"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?" + +"I believe not," answered my courteous companion, "but we doubtless +belong to the same race, however our habits and appearance may differ." + +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. + +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! + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +HOW I HEARD OF OLD NEIGHBOURS. + + +In 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. + +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. + +"Papa-- please-- I want more money to buy buns for the animals!" + +"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." + +"Oh, papa! do you think there are many?" + +"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, 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." + +"Do tell me now," cried the boy, seating himself by his father, "while +we rest a little quietly here." + +"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." + +"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?" + +"I grieved to see one so young already plunging into crime." + +"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." + +I pricked up my ears on hearing this conversation; I could not help +connecting it with what Bob had told his lame little brother; +I therefore listened with peculiar interest. Not that, as a rat, I could +understand the word _crime_, 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. + +But to return to the gentleman and his son. + +"No, Neddy, I did not punish the child," replied the former gravely. +"I 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. + +"Well," said Neddy, "I hope there's a precious deal of difference +between me and a beggarly thief!" + +"What has made that difference?" said the gentleman, laying his hand on +the shoulder of his beautiful boy. "I questioned that unhappy 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?" + +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?" + +"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 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." + +"Oh! papa, do you think that after once being a thief he is ever likely +to turn out good for anything!" + +"The experiment has been tried over and over again, Neddy, and many +times it has been mercifully attended with success. The idle _have_ +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 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. + +"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." + +"They could not give what they had not got, papa, if they wished to be +generous ever so much." + +"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." + +"And did they really starve a whole day?-- have neither breakfast, nor +dinner, nor supper,-- and all go hungry to bed?" + +"They did, Neddy, _all_ the thieves in that reformatory* 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!" + +"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." + +"I have no doubt of it," said his father with a smile. + +"And that poor boy-- yes, I hope that he may amend. Shall we hear +anything more of him, papa?" + +"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." + +"May I go with you?" said Neddy eagerly, "I should like to visit the +school." + +"I think that I shall take you with me," replied his father. + +"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!" + +"It would be more practicable for you," observed the gentleman, smiling +as he rose from his seat, "to support those which are built already."** + +"But, papa, I can do so little!" + +"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 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!" + + + [* The Reformatory in Great Smith Street, Westminster.] + + [** 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. + + 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.] + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + +HOW WE FOUND A FEAST. + + +I remained 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. + +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 had no fancy. +We therefore set out on our journey homewards. + +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. + +"I feel hungry," said he. + +"So do I," rejoined I. + +"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." + +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. + +"Pray, does this passage lead to a kitchen?" said Whiskerandos, not +appearing to notice their sharp teeth and gleaming eyes. + +"Yes," replied one; "but the passage, and the house, and the kitchen, +belong to us, and we let no one share in our rights." + +"Any one who attempts to pass," cried the other, very fiercely, "has to +pay us toll with his ears!" + +"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." + +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!" + +I felt uncommonly uncomfortable, and much inclined to turn round and +scamper for my life; but Whiskerandos soon ended the difficulty. "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." + +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. + +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. + +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. + +"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. + +"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?" + +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. + +"Mighty little use that flask is to us!" exclaimed one of the Brownies, +impatiently. + +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! + +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, "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." + +"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. + +"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, 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! + +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 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. + +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. + +"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. + +"Would it not be safer to call in a policeman?" + +"No, no,-- my blunderbuss is loaded, and the villains cannot escape. +You are nervous-- go back, Eliza." + +"Dearest-- I'll never leave you to meet the danger alone!" + +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 stories of midnight alarms the valiant husband and +his devoted spouse would amuse their family in the morning. + + + + +CHAPTER X. + +THE WANT OF A DENTIST. + + +I was 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. + +"And how is old Furry?" I asked, when at length I came to the end of my +narration. Furry had now taken up his quarters in the warehouse, but +sometimes visited our shed. + +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." + +"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." + +"_That_ is his misfortune," added Oddity. + +"How?-- what do you mean?-- what does he complain of,-- losing his teeth +or keeping them?" + +"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 such a +pace, that it is actually forming a circle in his mouth!" + +"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." + +"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." + +"Shall I go to see him?" said I. + +"Do as you please," replied Oddity. "There is little pleasure in seeing +him now, poor fellow." + +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 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. + +I was really glad to escape back to my shed from the atmosphere of a +peevish temper. I was accompanied to it by Oddity. + +"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?" + +"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." + +"So then they are as poor as ever?" inquired I. + +"I have heard something of occasional treats 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." + +"Has Bob brought home any more red handkerchiefs with white spots?" +inquired I. + +"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!" + +"What are these odd things scattered about the shed?" said I; "I don't +remember seeing them before." + +"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--" + +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. + +"Oh! that cough, how it shakes you!" cried Billy. + +"Never mind, 'twill be over soon," gasped his brother. + +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. + +"His brother always makes him wear it," whispered Oddity, "except at +night, and then it covers them both." + +"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. + +"I don't think I'll ever get better here." The boy shivered and closed +his eyes as he spoke. + +"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!" + +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!" + +"But you must not-- you shall not go and leave me! Oh! what should I do +without you?" cried Billy, bursting into tears. + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + +A REMOVAL. + + +A manly voice was heard on the outside, speaking to a porter who was +passing at the moment. + +"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." + +"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. + +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, +but by hearsay; and the bare, terrible reality took him by surprise. + +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. + +"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?" + +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!" + +"And does no one ever come to visit you?" + +"No one but the rats!" replied the child. + +"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. + +"Oh, papa!" cried Neddy, "they must not stay here; this horrible hole is +only fit for rats!" + +His father was bending over Bob, feeling his wrist, asking him questions +regarding his health, with a gentle kindness which goes farther to win +confidence and affection than the cold bestowal of the greatest +benefits. + +"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." + +"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?" + +The gentleman shook his head. + +"Then-- please, sir, I'd a much rather stay here: we han't never been +parted, Billy and me." + +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. + +"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. + +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." + +"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?" + +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. + +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 I still be able to go to my school?-- 'cause I +shouldn't like to be a-leaving it now!" + +"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." + +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. + +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. + +"You never wish to see that place again, I am sure?" cried Neddy. + +"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!" + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + +A NEW ROAD TO FAME. + + +It 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 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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +I have heard that the rats of Newfoundland bury their comrades when they +die, laying the bodies neatly one beside another, head and 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. + +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. + +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 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! + +Early in spring, one sunny morn, I received a visit from my old comrade +Whiskerandos. He was full of life and spirits. + +"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." + +"I'm your rat!" I exclaimed, highly delighted. "Would there be room for +Oddity too?" + +"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." + +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. + +The piebald one bluntly declined. + +"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." + +"I know he will not come back!" sighed Oddity. + +"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!" + +Oddity shook his head. + +"What! you are resolved not to travel?" + +"Not by water," was his short reply. + +"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!" + +"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. + +"Then farewell, Oddity," cried I; "I fear I shall never meet you again." + +"I'll come back to the old shed in winter," said he. + +"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 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!" + +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. + +"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, +hyaenas, bears, panthers, wolves, martens, white hares--" + +"Stop, stop!" I exclaimed, "we do not want any furs beyond those with +which nature has adorned us." + +"There was copper, iron, talc, (a mineral resembling glass--)" + +"We don't care about them; no rat ever lived upon minerals." + +"Linen, flax, hemp, feathers--" + +"If there is nothing more nutritious to be had in Russia, why I'd rather +stay at home," cried I, with a little vexation. + +"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!" + +"Enough, enough!" I exclaimed with delight, "Russia is the country +for me." + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. + +HOW I SET OUT ON MY VOYAGE. + + +When 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 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!" + +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. + +"Where is our vessel?" whispered I to Whiskerandos. + +"Yonder; don't you see her black hull?" + +"But how are we to get to her?" said I. nervously; "I have no great mind +to swim." + +"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." + +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 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. + +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. + +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 free communication with the other parts of the ship. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +Towards evening the motion grew stronger. 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. + +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 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. + +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? + +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: + + "But in a sieve I'll thither sail, + And like a rat without a tail, + I'll do-- I'll do-- I'll do!" + +The _do_, of course, represents _nibble, nibble, nibble_; but the rat +without a tail is of some species of which I had never before heard, +and have certainly never met with. + +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. + +_Neddy._-- "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 himself, the great autoc-rat of all +the Russias." + +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! + +"Is he really so powerful, papa, as people say that he is?" + +"Very powerful indeed, my boy." + +"And he's despotic, is he not? He has no Parliament?" + +"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!" + +"It must be a fine thing to be an autoc-rat, papa, and have no law but +one's own will!" + +"It is a giddy elevation, Neddy, which no truly wise man, conscious of +human infirmity, would ever covet to attain." + +"Wise man! human infirmity!" exclaimed 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! + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. + +A TERRIBLE WORD. + + +When 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? + +"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. + +"They please me well enough," I replied. + +"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." + +"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. + +"The sailors don't starve," said Whiskerandos more slowly; "yet they +think of adding another dish to their mess." + +"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." + +"Oh! but they won't be contented with your whiskers!" cried my friend, +with a funny, forced laugh. + +"What do you mean?" said I quickly. + +"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--" + +"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. + +He drooped his head for a moment, and uttered one word-- "_rat-pies!_" + +I started as though I had seen a tabby pounce down from the rigging! + +"'Tis impossible!" I faintly exclaimed; "human beings never, never eat +rats!" + +"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." + +"I don't like such compliments!" exclaimed I, beginning to tremble all +over. + +"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 make ourselves wretched before the time, about some event which +never may happen." + +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 _crying_, 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. + +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. + +"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." + +"Why should you dislike them," said the captain. + +"Oh! because they were our enemies so long, and killed so many of our +fine fellows!" + +"They were but obeying the orders of their czar-- doing what they +believed to be their duty." + +"But they were horribly cruel, papa." + +"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. + +"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 +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! + +"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." + +"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!" + +"It would have been noble," resumed the captain, "to have ventured thus +for a friend,-- the Russian lady did so for her enemies." + +"And were the French officers saved at last?" + +"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." + +"She was a generous enemy, papa, and a noble woman. But are not the +common people in Russia very ignorant and bad?" + +"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 the ferocity which disgraces a drunkard in +England." + +"But are they not dreadful thieves?" + +"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.* 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. + +"An English lady living at St. Petersburg gave five hundred rubles** 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.'" + +"The poor fellow," continued the captain, "probably expected a severe +flogging, or dismissal from his office, but the lady had no 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!" + +"Oh, papa! what honest people! But did the English woman take all their +money!" + +"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 placed the money in a public bank to +accumulate for the benefit of his children." + +"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!" + + + [* 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.] + + [** A Russian piece of money.] + + + + +CHAPTER XV. + +FIRST VIEW OF ST. PETERSBURG. + + +"Cronstadt! 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. + +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 +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. + +He was in company with another rat, of rather a foreign appearance. + +"My friend Dwishtswatshiksky here," said he, "tells me that we shall +soon arrive at the capital of Russia." + +"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. + +"You would doubtless, little brother, from natural association, like to +visit Rat Island," said the stranger with the unpronounceable name. + +"Rat Island!" exclaimed Whiskerandos and I at the same moment. + +"That fortified island opposite to Cronstadt, lying across the bay upon +which the place stands, and giving to its waters the appearance of a +lake, was called Ratusare, or Rat's Island in the days of old." + +"Not the only Rat's Island in the world," observed Whiskerandos; +"we have one off the coast of Devon." + +"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." + +"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." + +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 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. + +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. + +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 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. + +"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 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!" + +"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. + +"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! It is said that thousands of poor +human beings perished, and that the inundation cost the city more than a +hundred millions of rubles!" + +"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!" + + + + +CHAPTER XVI. + +A RUSSIAN KITCHEN. + + +Under 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. + +"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 scarf? His fine bushy beard seems to +match the fur with which his high four-cornered cap is trimmed." + +"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!" + +"And are their masters actually cruel enough," I exclaimed, "to expose +them to such suffering and risk?" + +"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 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!" + +"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. + +"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." + +"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 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,--" + +"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!" + +"Surely, Sir Wisky," exclaimed I, "you must have come to the end of your +list!" + +"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 +kapell-meister or head musician, and all the men of his band!" + +"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!" + +A valet at this moment entered the kitchen, where, secure in our +hiding-place, we were watching all that passed. + +"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. + +"My lady's a-fainting, and my lord's calling for water! Where's Ivan, +I say? 'tis his business to fetch it." + +"There's Ivan," said the cook, pointing contemptuously to a sandy-haired +figure fast asleep under the table. + +"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." + +Ivan got up slowly, yawned, stretched himself, rubbed his eyes; then, +taking a tumbler off the dresser, he leisurely filled it with water. + +"And where am I to get the silver salver?" said he. + +"That's in keeping of Matwei the buffetshik," observed the table-decker. + +"And where is Matwei to be found?" + +"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." + +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. + +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 of the glass of water,-- a happy thing for one who had +the misfortune to keep fifty or sixty servants. + +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 _to-morrow morning_, and 'this minute' _this +day week_." + +With quiet night came our feasting-time, 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. + +"I am curious to taste that liquor which you call kwas," said I; "Vatka +seemed to relish it exceedingly." + +"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." + +"Not bad at all," said I, dipping my whiskers carefully into a bowl that +had been set aside by the cook. + +"Mind you don't tumble in, old fellow!" cried Whiskerandos, "and be +drowned in kwas as I have heard that a duke once was drowned in wine." + +"And what may this kwas be made of?" inquired I, after another approving +sip. + +"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." + +"I wonder that kwas is not made in England," observed I; "but honey is +not so plentiful there." + +"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 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." + +"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!" + +"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." + +"And the ingredients?" said I, for I always delighted to pick up any +scrap of information interesting to a rat. + +"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. I must do the honours of this our city, and show +my illustrious guests whatever I may deem worthy of their observation." + + + + +CHAPTER XVII. + +A RAMBLE OVER ST. PETERSBURG. + + +"What 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. + +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 that a whole nation might have +provided covering for head and for feet. + +"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!" + +"The cold must then be fearful in winter," said I. + +"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 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!" + +"All this is very curious," observed I, "but still I have little desire +to witness it. The long winter must be dreary indeed!" + +"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 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 _cannot_ be without +abundance of ice in winter, they show that they _will_ not be without it +during their brief hot summer,-- the quantities consumed could scarcely +be believed!" + +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. + +"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." + +"Well," said Whiskerandos, who in the course of his adventurous life had +both seen cannon and learnt their use, "perhaps those 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." + +"Yonder," said Wisky, pointing with his nose, "are the father of the +Russian fleet and the grandmother of the houses of St. Petersburg." + +"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!" + +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. + +"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 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!" + +"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." + +"And where is the grandmother of the houses?" inquired I. + +"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!" + +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 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. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII. + +HOW WE WERE TRANSPORTED. + + +It 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. + +Our intentions, however, were frustrated, and our projects of amusement +defeated by an incident which suddenly altered the whole course of our +affairs. + +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. + +"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. + +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. + +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. + +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 which she paid back from her own +productions the contributions of the world. + +"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. + +"There may well be mountains, brother," observed Wisky, "since, besides +the quantities which she uses herself, Russia is said to export every +year about _two hundred and fifty millions of pounds_ of tallow, of +which above one half is shipped from St. Petersburg." + +"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?" + +"Trust yourself with me to-morrow night, and I will guide you to the +place," said Whiskerandos. + +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 curiosity,-- and the English rat won +the day. + +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. + +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 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. + +"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." + +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! + +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! + +"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! + +"Whiskerandos! oh, Whiskerandos! if they should be carrying us to a +mill!-- if we should be ground into powder between two great stones!" + +"Be quiet and never despair," was the answer of the bold-hearted rat. + +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! + +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. + +"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!" + +My tone was, I knew, both peevish and provoking; and many a brown rat, +in the 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. + +"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." + +His mildness quite overcame any feeling of bitterness in my heart; +and hope revived as some time elapsed without fresh cause for alarm +occurring. + +"I wonder where we are!" exclaimed I, shaking myself into a more easy +position. + +"I fancy that I hear the creaking of a windlass!" cried Whiskerandos. + +"And the flapping of canvass!" added I. "And I smell tar." + +"A strong odour of tar! Depend upon it, we are down in the hold of a +ship!" + +"Ha! that's the ripple of water! she moves,-- she moves!" + +We were again afloat on the waters! + + + + +CHAPTER XIX. + +A STORM AND ITS CONSEQUENCES. + + +"Farewell 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!" + +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. + +That was a horrible voyage! A fearful 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! + +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! + +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! + +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! + +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! + +Down in two seconds went the corn, swallowed up by the sea; still we +struggled, drowning rats that we were, to save ourselves 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! + +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! + +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. + +"If we are not drowned we shall be starved!" exclaimed I, very +piteously, to Whiskerandos. Alas! our barrel was empty. + +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 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! + +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. + +"Could we not swim to the shore?" said Whiskerandos. + +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!" + +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. + +"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. + +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! + +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. + + + + +CHAPTER XX. + +CATCH HIM-- DEAD OR ALIVE! + + +We 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 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. + +"There is sure to be a supply of water here," said Whiskerandos. "Let us +explore the place." + +"I fancy that I hear a dripping!" I cried eagerly, as we approached the +door of the back-yard. + +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. + +I was not one to venture on an unexplored region, so I looked anxiously +through into the yard. + +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 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. + +"In with you!" exclaimed Whiskerandos, impatiently. "Don't keep me here, +dying with thirst at the hole." + +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!" + +"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. + +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 +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. + +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! + +"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! + +I could not see Whiskerandos, for the trough 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. + +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! + +"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! + +"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 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! + +"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!" + +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-- Caesar-- who's first!" and swung +the body away towards the door behind which I stood a trembling, +shuddering spectator! + +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 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! + +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. + +"And are you really unhurt?" I exclaimed, when we stopped at last, +panting and exhausted. + +"Unhurt? yes!-- only bruised by the fling,-- it was well that the yard +was not paved with stones." + +"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!" + +"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!" + +"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. + +"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." + +The relief was certainly great, and as I drank the cool liquid, I felt +my spirits revive. + +"I wonder where we are now!" said I. + +"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--" + +"Oh! don't speak of him!" I exclaimed, "cruel, barbarous monster that +he is!" + +"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!" + +"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!" + +"Ah, but--" Whiskerandos commenced, but our conversation was suddenly +interrupted by a little squeak from the hedge close behind us. + +"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! + + + + +CHAPTER XXI. + +A NEW KIND OF WATCH-DOG. + + +What 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. + +"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?" + +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! + +"How did it happen?" was all that I could say. + +"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 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." + +"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!" + +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. + +"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." + +"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, nothing +so pleasant as a journey by land! What say you, friend Ratto?" +inquired he. + +"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!" + +"And you?" said Whiskerandos, turning to Bright-eyes. + +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!" + +And off skipped the merry little rat, before we could say a word to stay +him. + +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. + +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. + +"I say, Ratto," observed Whiskerandos, "do you see yonder object, near +that sheaf, that glitters so brightly in the sun?" + +"It is a can," replied I, "doubtless belonging to one of the reapers." + +"I should not wonder if there were a hunch of bread and cheese beside +it," said Whiskerandos. + +"I should not be surprised if there were." + +Whiskerandos remained for a minute in silence, then said, "I want to +compare English beer with Russian kwas." + +"You are not going into the field!" I cried in alarm. + +"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!" + +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. + +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!" + +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! + +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. + +"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. + +"The property of my master," replied my brother. + +"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?" + +"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: "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!" + +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. + +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 the expression of his bluff, +honest face, at various parts of his narration. + + + + +CHAPTER XXII. + +THE FARMER AND HIS BRIDE. + + +"I was 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. + +"'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! + +"'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.' + +"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 how +glad I was when I was set loose from the farmer's terrible gripe, though +only to find myself in a cage! + +"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!" + +At this point in the story Whiskerandos and I uttered expressions of +amazement. + +"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 from his heel! It was not in the nature of a quadruped to be +insensible to kindness like this!" + +"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!" + +"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." + +"And were you given to the lady?" said Whiskerandos. + +"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." + +"No, no!" interrupted I, "that's impossible, I can believe anything but +that!" + +"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 there +very quietly remained, while he and his Mary talked over future plans +together. + +"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. + +"'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. + +"'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 really good +one, we'll take him down with us into Kent.' + +"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! + +"So it was agreed between them that she should speak to the lad, and +tell him to call in the evening. + +"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?" + +"Bob and Billy!" I exclaimed at a venture. + +"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 +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! + +"'I beg pardon for bringing Billy,' said he, modestly but frankly, +'I was afraid to let him go home quite alone.' + +"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. + +"'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.' + +"'And how do you earn it?' inquired the farmer. + +"'Please, sir, I clean boots,'* answered the boy; 'I am one of the +yellow brigade.' + +"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. + +"'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?' + +"'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.' + +"'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!' + +"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.' + +"'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. + +"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: + +"'There-- look! if that an't my own pretty spotted rat!'" + +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. + +"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. + +"And so you live all together here?" said Whiskerandos; "this farmer, +his wife, the two boys, and you?" + +"Yes, and we are as happy as the day is long." + +"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?" + +"I am trusted," was the simple reply. + +"Now, Oddity," said I, "I should much like to see you in your new home, +surrounded by all your human companions." + +"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." + +"I'll have a peep," said Whiskerandos, "and then off to old London +again!" + +"You must take nothing from my master's house," cried Oddity. + +"Not a potato paring!" laughed our valiant companion. + +"And now I would advise you to be off," said my brother; "here's my +master coming for his dinner." + +Away we scampered at full speed, my light-footed 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. + + + [* In the course of a single year no less than _two thousand nine + hundred and eighty-one pounds_ were honestly earned in this manner + by 132 boys connected with ragged schools!] + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII. + +A PEEP THROUGH THE ROSES. + + +That 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. + +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. + +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. + +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?" + +"Whiskerandos," said I, pensively, to my companion, "I could almost wish +myself in Oddity's place!" + +"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 himself worthy +of the trust; but our race was never intended by nature to hold the +position of lap-dogs or cats." + +"And are we always to be hated by the lords of creation, never to be +useful to man?" + +"We are useful to man," said my companion. + +"Ah! in those places where he bakes us in pies, or makes hats or +glove-thumbs of our poor skins. But in London--" + +"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." + +"Little man thanks us for it!" cried I. + +"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?" + +"From Master Neddy," exclaimed Bob, with sparkling eyes. + +"He's come back from Russy, and so has his father, and they're so glad +to be in old 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. + +"Ah! Captain Blake did you some good turn, did he not?" said the farmer +to Bob. + +"He saved me from--" the boy coloured and paused,-- + +"From want, I suppose," said Grange, ending his sentence for him, and +stroking back Oddity's sleek ears. + +"From worse," said Bob, looking down. + +"Not from death?" + +"Worse than that," murmured the boy. + +"Eh?" said the farmer, in surprise. + +"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 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." + +"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!" + +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. + +And here I and my companions divide;-- I 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! + +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 + + THE RAMBLES OF A RAT. + + + [Decoration] + + + + + * * * * * + + + +Transcriber's note: + +"The Family of Mus" (Chapter VII): + +By some classifications, all the animals that appear in this chapter +are part of the superfamily _Muroidea_ within the rodent family. + + German Hamster: _Cricetus cricetus_, the black-bellied hamster. + _The European hamster is at least twice the size of the Syrian + or golden hamster. Its personality is much as described._ + Musk-rat: _Ondatra zibethicus_ + Lemming: _Lemmus lemmus_ + "... the Musk Cavy, which I have heard of as inhabiting Ceylon and + other places in the East" + _Possibly the hutia, _Capromys pilorides_, although hutias are + indigenous to the West Indies, especially Cuba, not Asia._ + + +Errors and Inconsistencies noted by Transcriber: + +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: + + Ch. V. ... I will not lose sight of you, my friend." + Ch. XVII. ... father of the Russian fleet." + +The word "invisible" means that the letter or punctuation mark is +absent, but there is an appropriately sized empty space. + +Ch. V. + He told me that I was about a sin-- a great sin. + [_text unchanged: missing words?_] + +Ch. VIII. + "I looked at his meagre form clothed in rags [open " missing] + How I should like to build one myself!" [close " missing] + [* The Reformatory in Great Smith Street, Westminster.] [. missing] + +Ch. IX. + to nibble at the hard polished crockery, [, invisible] + +Ch. XVI. + With quiet night came our feasting-time, [, invisible] + +Ch. XVII. + had both seen cannon and learnt their use, [. for ,] + +Ch. XVIII. + above one half is shipped from St. Petersburg." [close " missing] + the place where such glorious mountains are to be found?" + [_text unchanged: ? may be error for !_] + +Ch. XXI. + a hunch of bread and cheese beside it + [_spelling unchanged_] + +Ch. XXII. + the farmer's terrible gripe + [terribe gripe: _error corrected, archaic form retained_] + "'And how do you earn it?' inquired the farmer. [farmer.'] + my light-footed comrade and I [invisible hyphen at page-end] + +Ch. IX, Reconstructed Text: + A pair of facing pages are slightly damaged: + pg 60: + We therefore set out ... ["fore" obscured] + dogs and cats in the streets ["he" in "the" reconstructed from + facing page] + pg 61: + my good friends ... + notwithstanding the darkness ... + [word "good", "w" in "notwithstanding" reconstructed from + facing page] + observed that I have ... ["d" in "observed" invisible] + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE RAMBLES OF A RAT*** + + +******* This file should be named 29863.txt or 29863.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/9/8/6/29863 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +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. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. 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