The Rambles of a Rat

ccompanied us, but he preferred, as he said, home comforts and a nibble in the warehouse. I knew that he would look aft

s 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 c

e 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 th

name. "Take me anywhere," I exclaimed, "take me anywhere that you wi

ere are cats so huge that one could take a man's head

my peaceable companions!" thought I. "What folly it was to venture

some with long flowing manes, some spotted, some striped black and yellow, have no power to harm us. They are kept in barred cages

whitened with hoar-frost, which also glittered on the leafless boughs of the rows of trees which lined the long s

t 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 l

o cold. I however regretted this but little. The white bear was shaking his shaggy coat, the wolf pacing uneasily up and down his

ce with cats, whether they be little or big; but if any foreigners of th

ss in their teeth.1 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

robably 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

dens at present contain specimens of the cur