"Ratto," cried he, "I have often heard you say that you and I should visit foreign countries together; we've a capital opportunity now. A vessel is to weigh anchor to-morrow. I have been talking to a ship-rat of my acquaintance, who intends to sail in her, as he has done so before. He says that she is a capital old vessel, full of first-rate accommodation for rats; that Captain Blake keeps a very good table; that there is never any scarcity of pickings; and, in short, I am off for St. Petersburg, and mean to embark to-night: just say that you will go with me." "I'm your rat!" I exclaimed, highly delighted. "Would there be room for Oddity too?" "I daresay that there is plenty of room; but-- well, well, Oddity's an excellent old fellow in spite of his ugly skin; and I'll take care that nobody insults him." Off I scampered to Oddity, half out of breath with excitement; and giving him the news which I had just received, I begged him to accompany Whiskerandos and myself on a pleasure excursion to Russia. The piebald one bluntly declined. "Now this is nonsense, Oddity," cried I; "you must not stay moping here any longer, pining after a child, and watching for his return, when he is never likely to come back." "I know he will not come back!" sighed Oddity. "Then why don't you come and shake off this silly gloom? To tell you the plain truth, Oddity, your mind really requires opening, and there is nothing like travelling for that. You are, I am afraid, not a well-informed quadruped. I insist upon your embarking with us to-night, and we'll make a rat of you, my good fellow!" Oddity shook his head. "What! you are resolved not to travel?" "Not by water," was his short reply. "He is going into the country with me," cried Bright-eyes, springing with a few light bounds to my side. "We're going to my birth-place, near the sea-side. We will feast amongst the young corn there; and when the pea-blossom has faded, and the ripe pods hang temptingly down, we'll climb up the stalks and shell them, and banquet on the sweet green seeds! We'll revel in the strawberry beds, and try which peach is the ripest! Oh! merry lives lead the rats in a kitchen-garden, beneath the bright sun of summer!" "I've half a mind to go with you myself," said I, charmed with the rural description. But I remembered my engagement with Whiskerandos, and repressed the rising longing to feast upon English fruits, whose names sounded so tempting. "Then farewell, Oddity," cried I; "I fear I shall never meet you again." "I'll come back to the old shed in winter," said he.