What a rubbing of noses ensued! after all my travels and perils it was such joy to see again the face of a friend! I had so much also to relate, (I have ever been a loquacious rat,) that I almost lost breath in my long narration. I wound up my account with a description of the last adventure of Whiskerandos, who was now, in my eyes, ten times more a hero than before. "And now that I have told you my news," said I, "let's hear a little of yours. In the first place, where is old Oddity?" Bright-eyes hung down his head, and drooped his long tail in a touching and melancholy manner. Such conduct in so lively a rat showed me at once that my last surviving brother was dead! "How did it happen?" was all that I could say. "Not a week after our arrival in these parts, he was caught in a hay-rick by a farmer!" faltered Bright-eyes. "I saw him seized by the neck, I heard his despairing cry; I could not stay to see the poor fellow killed, and I was afraid of sharing his fate, so I made off as fast as I could." "Poor Oddity!" sighed I very mournfully, "never was there an uglier nor a better-hearted rat! Ah! what pleasure I vainly promised to myself in relating to you all my adventures! I have been across the deep waters, encountered various perils, now in danger of being cooked in a pie, now shivering on a barrel in the ocean, and yet here am I safe and sound after all; while you, remaining quietly in England, have ignominiously perished in a hay-rick!" Whiskerandos, who, being a brown rat, could not be expected to feel the same regret as myself, now turned towards Bright-eyes, and asked him how far we were from London-- "For I long to be back in my old quarters," said he. "A fortnight's journey for a rat, should he travel by land," replied Bright-eyes: "we came down very comfortably in a river boat, which carried us to within five miles of this spot." "I have had enough of water for some time," said Whiskerandos; "and now that the fields are full of ripe corn, and the gardens of fruit, nothing so pleasant as a journey by land! What say you, friend Ratto?" inquired he. "I have no mind for a long journey either by land or by sea," replied I in a melancholy tone; "I'll keep company with you for a day or two, Whiskerandos, but I would rather not return now to London. I will settle quietly for a time in the country near the spot where poor Oddity died!" "And you?" said Whiskerandos, turning to Bright-eyes.