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!"