end you word of new dangers when we hear of them."

The Rat, who was a fine young fellow, ran down the board and away. They
could not ask him in to lunch, because he was too large and stout to
squeeze through the cracks, but he understood how it was, and knew that
he could find food elsewhere. Now he ran to the Pig-pen to snatch a
share of the breakfast which the farmer had just left there. He often
did this as soon as the farmer went away, and the Pigs never troubled
him. Perhaps that was because they knew that if they drove him away when
he came alone, he would bring all his sisters and his cousins and his
aunts, and his brothers and his uncles too, the next time, and would
eat every bit of food they had.

After he had taken a hearty breakfast, he ran under the edge of the barn
to clean himself. He was always very particular about this. His mother
had taught him when very small that he must keep his fur well brushed
and his face washed, and he did it just as a Cat would, by wetting his
paws and scrubbing his face and the top of his head. He brushed his fur
coat with his paws also.

While he was here, one of his cousins came from the barn above. She ran
down the inside of the wall, head foremost, and her hind feet were
turned around until they pointed backward. That let her hold on with her
long, sharp claws, quite as a Squirrel does, and kept her from tumbling.
She was much out of breath when she reached the ground, but it was not
from running.

"What do you think that farmer has done now?" she cried. "It was bad
enough for him to nail tin over the holes we gnawed into his grain-bins,
but this is worse still. It needn't make us so much trouble, but it
hurts my feelings."

"What is it?" asked her cousin.

"A trap!" said she. "A horrible, shining trap. The Rat from the other
farm told me about it. It lies open and flat on the floor of a
grain-bin,--the very one you and I gnawed into last night,--and there is
a lovely piece of cheese in the middle of it. The Rat who told me about
it says that as soon as one touches the cheese, the trap springs shut on
him."

"Bah!" exclaimed the young Rat who had just eaten breakfast in the
Pig-pen. "Let it stay there! We don't have to touch it, although I do
mean to look at it some time. I believe in knowing about things."

"I wish you wouldn't look at it," said his cousin, who was very fond of
him.

"The Rat from the other farm says it is very dangerous to even look at
trap