The snub face of Oddity grew very grave at a question which he could not answer, and whose importance he felt. But light-hearted Bright-eyes quickly relieved our apprehensions.
“If we are to judge of what is in Russia by what comes from it,” he cried, “I should say that you have little to fear. I examined the cargo of a Russian ship once, and never did I see a finer collection of everything that could charm a rat. I say nothing of the furs,—skins of all kinds of creatures, sables, black and white foxes, ermines, lynxes, hyænas, bears, panthers, wolves, martens, white hares—”
“Stop, stop!” I exclaimed, “we do not want any furs beyond those with which nature has adorned us.”
“There was copper, iron, talc, (a mineral resembling glass—)”
“We don’t care about them; no rat ever lived upon minerals.”
“Linen, flax, hemp, feathers—”
“If there is nothing more nutritious to be had in Russia, why I’d rather stay at home,” cried I, with a little vexation.
“What do you say, then, to oil, both linseed and train-oil? to delicious honey, corn without end, soap, isinglass, and, to crown the whole, hogsheads upon hogsheads of—tallow!”
“Enough, enough!” I exclaimed with delight, “Russia is the country for me.”