The Sickness of Timothy Frisby
- This new rat? His name is Arthur, and he is the rat in charge of engineering for the colony. Sounds like a problem-solver to Shmoop.
- Arthur asks Mrs. Frisby to explain her problem, which she does. And immediately the rats start scheming about how to solve it. These are some task-oriented rodents.
- Nicodemus asks if Arthur and his team can move the house to the safe ("lee") side of the stone, as the Owl has suggested.
- Arthur says that should be easy enough.
- Now that she understands the plan, Mrs. Frisby sees how simple it is, once you have more knowledge about a situation. And these rats have some serious knowledge.
- Arthur explains that the project can be done in a few hours… but that they have to figure out a solution about Dragon first. Easier said than done.
- Justin explains that usually, Mr. Ages makes a sleeping potion for Dragon so they can work around him.
- Unfortunately, putting the potion in Dragon's food is how Mr. Ages' leg was broken.
- Mrs. Frisby realizes that this is why Dragon ignored her the day before, even though she knew he was looking right at her—the cat was asleep.
- The rats explain the process of slipping the food into the cat's bowl. It sounds majorly dangerous.
- Mrs. Frisby volunteers to deliver the powder to Dragon, even though she knows that she might not make it out alive.
- Bombshell alert! Nicodemus tells Mrs. Frisby that Mr. Frisby was killed doing this same task last year.