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]