He
destroyed my home and killed my little children. He said that the nuts
were his, and the field, too, was his. I thought they were mine.
Now I have to live on what I can find near his house. I am sure I eat a
great deal that he would not care for. Usually I am half-starved. It
seems to me as if the world were big enough for me to have a corner of
it in peace.
I dare say the man thinks that he is wholly in the right. He says I am
very troublesome, and he sets a trap every night to catch me. One night
I was caught by the paw, and held for hours in an agony of fright and
pain. I have been lame ever since. He would have been kinder if he had
killed me outright.
There is another dreadful trap which does not hurt at all at first, and
it is often used for this reason. There is a little door which opens
easily, and you find yourself in a wire house. There you starve to
death, unless some one comes to drown you. If we are to be caught in
traps, I wish that we might be put out of pain at once.
WISE RATS.
Rats are clever and intelligent, and in their way are very useful. In
large cities they eat the garbage which collects in harbors and at the
mouths of drains. This would cause sickness if it were not removed.
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