than crawling back through this small drain-pipe."

"Thank you!" replied Bumper. "I believe I'll go back that way!"

"All right, then. I must be going to my family. I haven't had my breakfast
yet. Good morning!"

Bumper thanked him again, and turned to follow the sewer back to the
garden, not realizing that the Rat had purposely deceived him out of
revenge.




STORY VIII

BUMPER RUNS INTO A NEST OF BATS


The way back to the garden seemed a long one, and Bumper soon began to
entertain doubts about the kindness of Mr. Sewer Rat. It was an old
abandoned sewer, with plenty of room in it for a whole colony of rabbits,
but it was terribly dirty and damp. The musty odor was so different from
the pleasant fragrance of the garden he had recently left.

"I must have traveled miles and miles," he thought after a while, stopping
to clean off some of the dirt that clung to his white fur. "Either that
Rat didn't know what he was talking about, or he told a whopping fib. They
always were sneaky animals, the Sewer Rats, and I shouldn't have listened
to him."