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."