The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents Read Online Free Page A

time…”
    â€œI’ve widdled on everything since I was out of the nest,” said Hamnpork. “ Now they tell me it’s not right. If that’s what thinking means, I’m glad I don’t do any.”
    â€œLet’s leave ’em amazed ,” said Maurice. “Rats? They think they’ve seen rats in that town? After they’ve seen us , they’ll be making up stories !”

CHAPTER 2
    M r. Bunnsy had a lot of friends in Furry Bottom. But what Mr. Bunnsy was friendly with more than anything else was food.
    â€”From Mr. Bunnsy Has an Adventure
    This was the plan:
    And it was a good plan. Even the rats, even Peaches, had to admit that it had worked.
    Everyone knew about plagues of rats. There were famous stories about the rat pipers, who made their living going from town to town getting rid of plagues of rats. Of course there weren’t just rat plagues—sometimes there were plagues of accordion players, bricks tied up with string, or fish—but it was the rats everyone knew about.
    And that, really, was it. You didn’t need many rats for a plague, if they knew their business. One rat, popping up here and there, squeaking loudly,taking a bath in the fresh cream and widdling in the flour, could be a plague all by himself.
    After a few days of this, it was amazing how glad people were to see the stupid-looking kid with his magical rat pipe. And they were amazed when rats poured out of every hole to follow him out of town. They were so amazed that they didn’t bother much about the fact that there were only a few hundred or so rats.
    They’d have been really amazed if they’d ever found out that the rats and the piper met up with a cat somewhere in the bushes outside of town, and solemnly counted out the money.
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    Bad Blintz was waking up when Maurice entered with the kid. No one bothered them, although Maurice got a lot of interest. This did not worry him. He knew he was interesting. Cats walked as if they owned the place anyway, and the world was full of stupid-looking kids, and people weren’t rushing to see another one.
    It looked as though today was a market day, but there weren’t many stalls and they were mostly selling, well, junk. Old pans, pots, used shoes…the kinds of things people have to sell when they’re short of money.
    Maurice had seen plenty of markets on theirjourney through other towns, and he knew how they should go.
    â€œThere should be fat women selling chickens,” he said. “And people selling sweets for the kids, and ribbons. Acrobats and clowns. Even weasel jugglers, if you’re lucky.”
    â€œThere’s nothing like that. There’s hardly anything to buy, by the look of it,” said the kid. “I thought you said this was a rich town, Maurice.”
    â€œWell, it looked rich,” said Maurice. “All those big fields in the valley, all those boats on the river…you’d think the streets’d be paved with gold!”
    The kid looked up. “Funny thing,” he said.
    â€œWhat?”
    â€œThe people look poor,” he said. “It’s the buildings that look rich.”
    And they did. Maurice wasn’t an expert on architecture, but the wooden buildings had been carefully carved and painted. He noticed something else, too. There was nothing careful about the sign that had been nailed up on the nearest wall.
    It said:
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    RATS WANTED DEAD ! 50 cents per tail!
Apply to: The Rat Catchers c/o The Rathaus
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    The kid was staring at it.
    â€œThey must really want to get rid of their rats here,” said Maurice cheerfully.
    â€œNo one has ever offered a reward of half a dollar a tail!” said the kid.
    â€œI told you this would be the big one,” said Maurice. “We’ll be sitting on a pile of gold before the week’s out!”
    â€œWhat’s a rat house?” asked the kid doubtfully. “It can’t be a house for rats,