"'And would you rather stay here and rub in blacking,' said the farmer, 'than be out in the open fields? Yours is an odd taste, I take it! Would you not rather come with us?' "'Oh, sir!' said Bob, uneasily, shifting from one foot to the other, while Billy was squeezing his hand harder than ever, and looking half ready to cry, as he pressed closer to his side; 'you see I could not leave him behind,-- poor lame Billy, he's no one to care for him but me.' "'That's it, is it!' cried the farmer, clapping his knee. 'Well, Mary, what say you? could we take the two with us do you think? If they've always been together, poor fellows, 'twould be a pity to part them now!' "Bob's only answer was a look of pleasure and gratitude, but little Billy almost burst into tears of delight as he exclaimed, 'Oh, yes! please, sir, take me too!-- take me too! I'll do anything,-- I'll work,-- I'll make baskets for your fruit.' "'And coops for my poultry, hey? We'll find some way of making you useful.' And he turned to Mary with that smile which I think that all human beings wear when they are doing some act of kindness. "I was so much pleased," continued Oddity, "at this conclusion to the affair, that I ran out from my place beneath the chair. Billy uttered a cry of surprise: "'There-- look! if that an't my own pretty spotted rat!'" Here I rather rudely interrupted my piebald brother. "Pretty! did he call you pretty? well, well, I shall be obliged to think you so myself, I suppose. Spared by a man, petted by a woman, admired by a child,-- and all for your beauty,-- Oddity's beauty!" I could not help laughing outright at the thought. "My ugliness has at least done me no harm," he replied, with a meekness which made me more ashamed of my rudeness than if he had fired up at my ridicule. "And so you live all together here?" said Whiskerandos; "this farmer, his wife, the two boys, and you?" "Yes, and we are as happy as the day is long." "Humph!" said Whiskerandos; "I should prefer my wild freedom; but it is different, I suppose, with man. And as for you, Oddity, you were never like other rats; you were always intended for a watch-dog. And you really guard that can and parcel for hours, and resist the temptation to nibble?" "I am trusted," was the simple reply. "Now, Oddity," said I, "I should much like to see you in your new home, surrounded by all your human companions." "Yonder is my master's house," answered Oddity, pointing across the field with his nose. "You have but to clamber up to the window in the evening, and peep through the clustering roses, and you will see us all there together." "I'll have a peep," said Whiskerandos, "and then off to old London again!" "You must take nothing from my master's house," cried Oddity. "Not a potato paring!" laughed our valiant companion. "And now I would advise you to be off," said my brother; "here's my master coming for his dinner."