"I'm in no hurry," he said mildly. But he returned to reading out loud again. He was not a quick reader, but his current pace promised he might finish this story all in one night. It was only a short story, scarcely a few pages long, and the words were big and bold for children to enjoy. But the story went on about the captain who kept the food locked away and how he ate a feast every night, but his crew and passengers suffered on rations. So the rat had a plan to not just feed his family, but everyone on the ship as well. It was a boldly defiant story, for the captain very much was set up to be a king-like figure.

By story's end, the captain's eyes had been poked out and he'd been tossed over the ship to be eaten by sea gulls. Whatever fairy tales might be when it came to happy endings, they were often barbaric in their lessons. Cruel captains were done in by the end of the story. Robert the Rat paradoxically even was elected as captain at the end, but turned the position down! But he and his family stayed on the ship afterward, closing out on a mostly happy ending. Gendry was not impressed.

"No one would let rats stay on a ship," he complained after the story was over and the candle's wax diminished by over an hour's worth of time. "Someone would swat them all with a stick and toss them over the side."