"Well, finally I set to work and thought out a clever plan of escape. I gnawed a hole through the wooden floor of my cage and kept it covered with straw, so the boy couldn't see it. And one night when I heard him safely snoring—he always kept my cage at the head of his bed—I slipped out of the hole and got away.
"I had many adventures with cats. It was winter time and the snow lay thick upon the ground. I started off to explore the world, rejoicing in my liberty. Going around to the back of the house, I passed from the miller's yard into the dyer's yard, next door. In the yard was a dyeing shed and I noticed two owls sitting on the top of it in the moonlight.
"Entering the shed, I met a rat, very old and very thin. Said he to me:
"'I am the oldest rat in the town and I know a great deal. But, tell me, why do you come here into the dyeing shed?'
"'I was looking for food,' I said.
"The old rat laughed a cracked and quavering laugh, with no joy in it at all.
"The old rat laughed a quavering laugh"