And very likely he did ! -LSB- Adapted from Bureau of Ethnology . -RSB- The Husband of the Rat 's Daughter Once upon a time there lived in Japan a rat and his wife who came of an old and noble race , and had one daughter , the loveliest girl in all the rat world . Her parents were very proud of her , and spared no pains to teach her all she ought to know . There was not another young lady in the whole town who was as clever as she was in gnawing through the hardest wood , or who could drop from such a height on to a bed , or run away so fast if anyone was heard coming . Great attention , too , was paid to her personal appearance , and her skin shone like satin , while her teeth were as white as pearls , and beautifully pointed . Of course , with all these advantages , her parents expected her to make a brilliant marriage , and , as she grew up , they began to look round for a suitable husband . But here a difficulty arose . The father was a rat from the tip of his nose to the end of his tail , outside as well as in , and desired that his daughter should wed among her own people . She had no lack of lovers , but her father 's secret hopes rested on a fine young rat , with moustaches which almost swept the ground , whose family was still nobler and more ancient than his own . Unluckily , the mother had other views for her precious child . She was one of those people who always despise their own family and surroundings , and take pleasure in thinking that they themselves are made of finer material than the rest of the world . ` HER daughter should never marry a mere rat , ' she declared , holding her head high . ` With her beauty and talents she had a right to look for someone a little better than THAT . ' So she talked , as mothers will , to anyone that would listen to her . What the girl thought about the matter nobody knew or cared -- it was not the fashion in the rat world . Many were the quarrels which the old rat and his wife had upon the subject , and sometimes they bore on their faces certain marks which looked as if they had not kept to words only . ` Reach up to the stars is MY motto , ' cried the lady one day , when she was in a greater passion than usual . ` My daughter 's beauty places her higher than anything upon earth , ' she cried ; ` and I am certainly not going to accept a son-in-law who is beneath her . ' ` Better offer her in marriage to the sun , ' answered her husband impatiently .
` As far as I XXXXX there is nothing greater than he . '
am bore cared expected know lived make offer paid swept