"Oh, what's that?" cried the girls.

"It's only the rats," said the cart man. And he went away and shut
the door, and the sudden draught of it blew out the candle.

"Oh, dear," said Phyllis, "I wish we hadn't come!" and she knocked a
chair over.

"ONLY the rats!" said Peter, in the dark.



Chapter II. Peter's coal-mine.


"What fun!" said Mother, in the dark, feeling for the matches on the
table. "How frightened the poor mice were--I don't believe they
were rats at all."

She struck a match and relighted the candle and everyone looked at
each other by its winky, blinky light.

"Well," she said, "you've often wanted something to happen and now
it has. This is quite an adventure, isn't it? I told Mrs. Viney to
get us some bread and butter, and meat and things, and to have
supper ready. I suppose she's laid it in the dining-room. So let's
go and see."

The dining-room opened out of the kitchen. It looked much darker
than the kitchen when they went in with the one candle. Because the