and as the last furviving rat would not be able to eat up himself, he defigned to gibbet him, for an example to all maroders.

In confequence of this moft barbarous, moft dreadful, moft aftonishing, moft fhocking, moft inhuman, and most bloody refolution, the vigilant hero furveyed the out-works of his wooden caftle ten times a day, with a lighted candle, to try if any of their pioneers were making their way through the walls, in which cafe he defigned to pour a quantity of lighted matches into the ftraw, and confign the whole regiment of long-tails to fire and brimftone; but no fhadow of escape appearing, he continued his first dreadful plan of letting them eat one another. In about three weeks,

or

or a month's time, when he thought there would not be the claw of a rat left, except the furvivor, he boldly opened the lid; but making a great noise when he took the pan and the half hundred weight off, the whole family within were fo much upon their guard, that, the moment daylight appeared, out they all jumped helter-fkelter, with ten times the precipitation they did before; of confequence, this attack feemed to him ten times fiercer than the former; who would wonder then, if his courage again failed him; I mean, that he had not time to rally its fcattered atoms, to come to his affiftance; he therefore attempted the ftairs with the fame tumble-up velocity he did before, but remembering his fhins, which were hardly skined over, he kept his

body

body fo upright, that his head ftruck a beam with fuch force, that it fent him back again into the thick of the engagement in fpite of his teeth, where he lay motionless on the ground for above a minute: had the enemy been actuated by the fame fpirit of revenge as himself, had the rats been half as bad chriftians as John, they might have made him feverely repent his direful schemes; but they were ve

for

ry well fatisfied with putting their adversary to flight; and every rat had made the best of its way to fome purling ftream, to quench his thirft; though their caftle was ftored with plenty of provifions, yet those proviLions being rather falt, they began to be diftrefs'd for want of water; but they made the best of a bad market, which juftifies an obfervation of

mine,

mine, that every animal, bears its wants with more philofophy than

man.

When John came to himself, and found that the rats had not eaten him, which his confcience fuggested they ought to have done, inftead of feeling the leaft compunction for his most inhuman defigns on fo generous an enemy, he began to confider which way this deep laid fcheme of his had failed. Whenever John began to confider of ways and means, his nails were of great use in making a grating kind of a noife on the outfide of his fcull, whereby his brains had notice, that John wanted their affistance John had gotten his wigg removed, in order to begin the operation, when he found the auxiliary friend

friend to the rats, the beam, had -foftened his crown for him in fuch a manner, that it could not bear the touch of a nail; finding, therefore, it would be in vain to attempt to fcratch a thought up, he (without thinking) fell to kicking the barrel, to fend the dead rats about their bufinefs after the live ones; for a quantity of dead ones he was fure there must be; but none of them chufing to tir, he turned the barrel upfide down, to spy how many of them lay at the bottom of the straw, where lo! instead of dead rats, he found the bone of a ham, with about two pound of flesh left; aftonished at the bone of a ham, very near picked, being in his houfe, when he had no fhare in picking it, he directly bawls out, Betty where is our ham ?"

"In