if ever he was hungry.

And very likely he did!

[Adapted from Bureau of Ethnology.]

The Husband of the Rat's Daughter

Once upon a time there lived in Japan a rat and his wife who came of an
old and noble race, and had one daughter, the loveliest girl in all the
rat world. Her parents were very proud of her, and spared no pains to
teach her all she ought to know. There was not another young lady in the
whole town who was as clever as she was in gnawing through the hardest
wood, or who could drop from such a height on to a bed, or run away so
fast if anyone was heard coming. Great attention, too, was paid to her
personal appearance, and her skin shone like satin, while her teeth were
as white as pearls, and beautifully pointed.

Of course, with all these advantages, her parents expected her to make a
brilliant marriage, and, as she grew up, they began to look round for a
suitable husband.

But here a difficulty arose. The father was a rat from the tip of his
nose to the end of his tail, outside as well as in, and desired that his
daughter should wed among her own people. She had no lack of lovers, but
her father's secret hopes rested on a fine young rat, with moustaches
which almost swept the ground, whose family was still nobler and more
ancient than his own. Unluckily, the mother had other views for her
precious child. She was one of those people who always despise their
own family and surroundings, and take pleasure in thinking that they
themselves are made of finer material than the rest of the world. 'HER
daughter should never marry a mere rat,' she declared, holding her head
high. 'With her beauty and talents she had a right to look for someone a
little better than THAT.'

So she talked, as mothers will, to anyone that would listen to her. What
the girl thought about the matter nobody knew or cared--it was not the
fashion in the rat world.

Many were the quarrels which the old rat and his wife had upon the
subject, and sometimes they bore on their faces certain marks which
looked as if they had not kept to words only.

'Reach up to the stars is MY motto,' cried the lady one day, when she
was in a greater passion than usual. 'My daughter's beauty places her
higher than anything upon earth,' she cried; 'and I am certainly not
going to accept a son-in-law who is beneath her.'

'Better offer her in marriage to the sun,' answered her husband
impatiently. 'As far as I know there is nothing greate