“Or to shoot us when you grow up,” said the rook, just turning his head round as he was preparing to fly.
“Oh no! indeed, I won’t,” said Tommy Smith; and the rook flew away with a loud caw of pleasure.
“I SHALL KEEP AWAKE TILL THE RAT COMES”
CHAPTER IV.
THE RAT
“The rat is a king. Tommy Smith has a peep
At his palace: but is he awake or asleep?”
“I SEE you,” said the rat, as Tommy Smith passed through the yard of his father’s house. “I see you, but it is not the right time yet. Wait till to-night.”
So all that day Tommy Smith kept thinking of what the rat had promised; and when his bedtime came, instead of wanting to stay up longer, as he usually did, he was quite pleased to go, and went upstairs without making any fuss. “Now,” thought he, as he made himself nice and snug in bed, “I shall keep awake till the rat comes. I am not at all sleepy. I can see the branch of the cedar tree by the window shaking in the wind, and I can hear the clock ticking on the staircase. ‘Tick, tick—tick, tick,’—I wonder if it gets tired of saying that all day long, and all night long, too, without ever once stopping,—unless they don’t wind it up. ‘Tick, tick—tick, tick.’ If I keep on counting it, I shan’t go to sleep. ‘Tick, tick—tick, tick—tick, tick—tick—squeak!’”