“It’s pretty hard not to like her,” he says. “Even whenyou know you shouldn’t.”

“Who says you have to be either smart or pretty, or into girly stuff or sports? Life shouldn’t be about the either/or. We’re capable of more than that, you know?”

“She sighed. “Go on, say it. I shouldn’t have come.”“You shouldn’t have come.” He looked sideways at her and gave her a fleeting grin. “But I’m glad you did.”

“You shouldn’t offer cookies without milk, you know. You’re a pretty pathetic hostess.”

“I dare say it is rather hard to be a rat,” she mused. “Nobody likes you. People jump and run away and scream out: ‘Oh, a horrid rat!’ I shouldn’t like people to scream and jump and say: ‘Oh, a horrid Sara!’ the moment they saw me, and set traps for me, and pretend they were dinner. It’s so different to be a sparrow. But nobody asked this rat if he wanted to be a rat when he was made. Nobody said: ‘Wouldn’t you rather be a sparrow?”

“He looked at her in complete devotion. “We made a little baby…”She smiled and giggled. “It wasn’t that hard either, was it?” “I don’t know about you but I was working pretty hard.”