Speaker 0: The story of Arthur the rat. Once upon
Speaker 0: a time there was a young rat who
Speaker 0: couldn't make up his mind.
Speaker 0: Whenever the other rats asked him if he
Speaker 0: would like to come out hunting with them,
Speaker 0: he would answer in a hoarse voice, I
Speaker 0: don't know. And when they said,
Speaker 0: would you rather stay inside,
Speaker 0: he would say yes
Speaker 0: or no either. He'd always
Speaker 0: shake making a choice.
Speaker 1: One fine day, his aunt Josephine said to
Speaker 1: him, Now look here. No one will ever
Speaker 1: care for you if you would carry on
Speaker 1: like this. You have no more mind of
Speaker 1: your own than a greasy old blade of
Speaker 1: grass.
Speaker 1: The young rat coughed and looked quiet as
Speaker 1: usual, but said nothing.
Speaker 2: Don't you
Speaker 2: think so? Said his aunt, stamping her foot,
Speaker 2: for she couldn't bear to see the young
Speaker 2: rat so cold blooded.
Speaker 2: I don't know was all he ever answered.
Speaker 2: And then he walked off to think for
Speaker 2: an hour or more,
Speaker 2: whether he would stay
Speaker 2: in his hole in the ground
Speaker 2: or go out into the loft.
Speaker 3: One night, the rats heard a loud noise
Speaker 3: in the loft.
Speaker 3: It was a very dreary old place. The
Speaker 3: roof let the rain come down, come washing
Speaker 3: in.
Speaker 3: The beams in the rafters had all rotted
Speaker 3: through, so the whole thing was quite unsafe.
Speaker 3: At last one of the joists gave way
Speaker 3: and the beams fell with one edge on
Speaker 3: the floor.
Speaker 3: The walls shook,
Speaker 3: the cupola fell off,
Speaker 3: and all the rat's hair stood on end
Speaker 3: with fear and horror.
Speaker 4: This won't do for any leader.
Speaker 4: We we can't stay cooped up here any
Speaker 4: longer. So they sent out scouts to start
Speaker 4: exploring their
Speaker 4: home. A little later on that evening, the
Speaker 4: scouts come by and said they'd find an
Speaker 4: old fashioned hard farm
Speaker 4: where there would be room and board for
Speaker 4: all of them. The leader gave the order
Speaker 4: at once, come new, fallen in. And the
Speaker 4: rats crawled out of the hole right away
Speaker 4: and stood on the floor in a long
Speaker 4: line.
Speaker 5: Just then, the old rat caught sight of
Speaker 5: young Arthur.
Speaker 5: That was the name of the shaker.
Speaker 5: He wasn't in the line
Speaker 5: and he wasn't exactly outside it. He stood
Speaker 5: just growled
Speaker 5: the old rat coarsely. 'Of course, you're growled
Speaker 5: the old
Speaker 5: rat coarsely.
Speaker 5: Of course, you're coming too.
Speaker 5: I don't know,
Speaker 5: said Arthur calmly.
Speaker 5: Why, the idea of it. You don't think
Speaker 5: it's safe here anymore,
Speaker 5: do you?
Speaker 6: I'm not certain,
Speaker 6: said Arthur, undaunted.
Speaker 6: Your roof may not fall down yet.
Speaker 6: Well, said the old rat, she can't wait
Speaker 6: for us to for you to join us.
Speaker 6: Then he turned to the other and shouted,
Speaker 6: right about the face, march.
Speaker 6: And the long line marched out
Speaker 6: to burn while the young rat watched him.
Speaker 7: I think I'll go tomorrow, he said to
Speaker 7: himself, but then again, perhaps I won't.
Speaker 7: It's so nice and snug here. I guess
Speaker 7: I'll go back to my hold under the
Speaker 7: log for a while
Speaker 7: just to make up my mind.
Speaker 7: But during the night, there was a big
Speaker 7: crash. Down came beams, rafters, joists, the whole
Speaker 7: business.
Speaker 8: Next morning, it was a foggy day, some
Speaker 8: men came to look over the damage.
Speaker 8: It seemed odd to them that the old
Speaker 8: building was not haunted by rats.
Speaker 8: But at last one of them happened to
Speaker 8: move aboard,
Speaker 8: and he caught sight of a young rat,
Speaker 8: quite dead, half in and half out of
Speaker 8: his hole.
Speaker 8: Thus, the shirker got his due and there
Speaker 8: was no mourning for him.