SLOOT
The Sloot, which is the name of this animal, is a really horrid creature. His mother, I should add, calls him Bertie. He is not supposed to get into this book at all, but as you can see if you look at the picture, it is very difficult to tell whether he is going or coming, and I made the mistake of thinking he was going, and he wasn’t at all.
He is not even sincerely horrid like Growp so you cannot get any enjoyment out of him by throwing broken saucers at him and then seeing if you can get safely away, as you can with the other. He is shy and soft spoken, in fact he has taken to speaking with a lisp of a peculiar kind because he thinks it makes him sound innocent. He is trying hard to get taken into society among the other animals and has learnt to play the harp in the hope that people will ask him to entertain their guests after dinner.
These are some of his bad habits. He does not wash, he only pretends to, and sometimes just wets the parts that show; also he listens behind keyholes and reads other people’s letters, and he treads on old gentlemen’s toes for spite, and then tries to look as if some one else had done it and says, “Really, how can people be so rude!”
In fact he is no gentleman, and never will be. And just look at his tail.