rain came pouring down, as the forester's left shoulder had foretold, a
shocking thing happened.

Suddenly, then and there, a queer sound began to come from the end of
the packing-case that was nearest to the corner of the barn. It was a
sort of gnawing and creaking, as though there were an animal inside. And
it was soon proved that that was what it was. For, when the gnawing had
lasted some time, a great, fat, brown rat came out of the case.

The moment she appeared, a quantity of sugar came pouring over her. The
rat did not so much as touch the sugar. She had had enough of that
inside the case. She began at once to gnaw a hole in the floor, at a
place where the boards were rather rotten, so that it was an easy job.
The hole was soon ready and there was plenty of room for a family of
rats under the boards. The rat immediately began to collect straw and
took it down with her.

When she had finished her work, she stopped and looked the house-mouse
straight in the face.

"Who in the name of wonder are you?" asked the house-mouse. "You have
mousy ways and, if you were black, I should say you were a rat."

"I am a rat," said the other. "Rats were black in the old days. The
fashion now is to be brown. Black rats are quite out of date and are of
no use to-day."

"Oh, really!" said the house-mouse, circumspectly. "Well, I live out
here in the country, and know nothing of what goes on in the great world
beyond. Allow me to introduce myself. I am the house-mouse."

"You needn't tell me that," said the rat. "I have seen many of your sort
at Copenhagen. But what are you doing out here on the threshing-floor? I
thought you kept to the kitchen and the larder."

"So I do, as a rule," said the house-mouse. "But I am free to go where I
please. And I can come through the kitchen-drain without getting wet.
For it's raining terribly, let me tell you."

"What of that?" said the rat. "Are you afraid of a little water? The
more the better. I can swim like a fish, you know. I once swam across
the harbour at Copenhagen; and, as a matter of fact, I don't feel well
unless I have a little swim every day. I hope there's a decent gutter
here?"

"Ugh, yes, a horrid broad one!" said the mouse. "But I always go round
it. I don't set foot in the kitchen-drain either, except when it's dry.
To-day, I came to get a bit out of the new case of groceries. I heard my
young lady say that it had arrived. And generally there is a bit here
and there