“That is his misfortune,” added Oddity.
“How?—what do you mean?—what does he complain of,—losing his teeth or keeping them?”
“Both,” said Oddity. I should have thought him joking, but Oddity was never guilty of a joke in his life. “You see,” he continued, observing my look of surprise, “that gnawing is necessary to us rats, to keep down the quick growth of our teeth. If they are not constantly rubbing one against another, they soon get a great deal too long for our mouths. As poor old Furry’s upper tooth is gone, of course the one just under it is now out of work, and having nothing else to do, is growing at such a pace, that it is actually forming a circle in his mouth!”
“You don’t say so!” I exclaimed “I have often noticed the strange length of that tooth, but I had no notion of the extent of the evil.”
“It has much increased since you left us,” sighed Oddity, “and where it will end I really don’t know. The poor fellow is blind, he had no pleasure but in nibbling and chatting, and now his dreadful long tooth is actually locking his jaw.”
“Shall I go to see him?” said I.
“Do as you please,” replied Oddity. “There is little pleasure in seeing him now, poor fellow.”
And so I found when I went. Poor old Furry’s misfortune had by no means sweetened his temper. He was ready to bite any one who approached him, only biting was now out of the question. He could hardly manage to swallow a little meal which Oddity had procured, and certainly took it without a sign of gratitude. One would have thought, by his manner towards the piebald rat, that it was he who had knocked out the unlucky front tooth, instead of having kindly attended to Furry’s wants for so long, and borne with his temper, which was harder. But Oddity was, without a doubt, the most patient and steady of rats. While Bright-eyes, full of fun, made many a joke at the expense of the blind, crabbed old rat, who had been so fond of talking, and now could scarcely utter a squeak—of eating, and now could not nibble a nut,—Oddity never thought the sufferings of another the subject for a smile, or the peevishness and infirmities of age any theme for the ridicule of the young. He had been often laughed at himself; that was perhaps the reason why he never gave the same pain to others.
I was really glad to escape back to my shed from the atmosphere of a peevish temper. I was accompanied to it by Oddity.
“And now, dear old rat,” said I, when we were alone, “how go on our little ragged friends? What has become of Bob and Billy?”