Peter.--Grunting and tumbling one over the other, I cared…

Peter.—Grunting and tumbling one over the other, I cared not whither. Well, as I was just then standing, grieving over the ruin, I heard Thomas call, “Master Peter, come and see what the rats have been doing— They’ve eaten all the guinea-pigs’ heads off!”

ZEDEKIAH.—Oh, Peter, was it true?

PETER.—Away I ran, not knowing what in the world to do!— And there—I declare it makes me quite shudder to the bone— Lay all my pretty little guinea-pigs as dead as a stone! “It’s no matter of use,” says Thomas, “setting traps; for you see They no more care for a trap, than I do for a pea; I’ll lay my life on’t, there are twenty rats now down in that hole, And we can no more reach ’em, than an underground mole!” I declare, Zedekiah, I never passed such a day before—not I; It makes me quite low-spirited, till I’m ready to cry. All those pretty guinea-pigs! and I’ve nothing left at all, Only the hawk, and I’ve just set his cage on the wall.

ZEDEKIAH.—Hush! hush, now! for Thomas is saying something there,

PETER.—What d’ye say, Thomas?