R A T 
 
 ' ATCHJNC 
 
The* International Uongress "cT~ I'noiisnem 
 lias been quite an unusual success, has been 
 well-attended by representative men from 
 Europe and America, has received all honour in 
 London, and has been, in the conference por- 
 tion of its proceedings, characterised by much 
 common sense. There was one unexpected 
 result of a protest raised against the excessive 
 use of extracts by some reviewers. We might 
 have supposed that this would have been 
 an opportunity eagerly seized upon to mitigate 
 what is undoubtedly an evil. It is well known 
 that many persons do not buy books because 
 all the spicy portions have been to use Mr. 
 Arthur Waugh's phrase " gutted " by the 
 papers, which get attractive copy at a very easy 
 rate. Mr. Waugh asked the Congress to do 
 something towards amending the copyright law 
 upon an admittedly difficult point, but the 
 general body of publishers present seemed to 
 be of opinion that the law is strong enough 
 already, and that there is not after all much t<> 
 complain about. A very funny story was told i 
 by the chairman, Mr. John Murray. His Him 
 published a book recommended by Mr. <iU<l- 
 stone, and it was a dead failure. It also 
 published a little thing on rat-catching, which 
 was reviewed in the Field, and in consequence of j 
 the notice communications came from all parts * 
 of the country, and the book was a de< 
 success. 
 
STUDIES IN THE ART 
 
 OF 
 
 RAT-CATCHING. 
 
 BY H. C BARKLEY, 
 
 AUTHOR OF 
 MY BOYHOOD," " BETWEEN THE DANUBE AND THE BLACK SEA," ETC. 
 
 POPULAR EDITION. 
 
 LONDON: 
 JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET. 
 
 1896. 
 
LONDON : 
 PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, LIMITED, 
 
 STAMFORD STREET AND CHARING CROSS. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 MY publisher writes to say that he, and he 
 thinks others too, would like to know how 
 I ever came to write such a book as this ! 
 It came about in this way. Some two 
 years ago, I was about to leave England for 
 a considerable time, and a few days before 
 starting, I went to stay in a country house, 
 full of lads and lassies, to say good-bye. 
 One evening, while sitting over the study 
 fire, the subject of rat-catching came up v 
 and, as the aged are somewhat wont to do ; 
 I babbled on about past days and various 
 rat-catching experiences, till one of the boys 
 
 325452 
 
iv Preface. 
 
 exclaimed," I say, what sport it would be if 
 they would only teach rat-catching at school ! 
 Wouldn't I just work hard then, that's all ! " 
 
 The stories came to an end. at bed-time, 
 and I was then pressed by my hearers to 
 write from foreign lands some more of my 
 old reminiscences, and I readily gave a 
 promise to do so. In this way most of the 
 following stories were written ; and in writing 
 them, I endeavoured to carry out the idea 
 that they were exercises to be used in 
 schools. 
 
 I don't anticipate that head-masters will 
 very generally adopt the book in their 
 schools ; but I hope it may, in some few 
 instances, give boys a taste for a wholesome 
 country pastime. 
 
 The characters and incidents are rough, 
 very rough, pen and ink sketches of real 
 people and scenes, and the dogs are all dear 
 friends of past days. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Page 
 
 The Ferret Family Crossed with the Polecat 
 Choosing Ferrets Hutches Feeding Ferrets 
 " Bar the Tail "Handling Ferrets ... 8 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 Bag versus Box Ferrets Fighting The Ratting Spade 
 Ratting Tools Hints to Schoolmasters Learn- 
 ing Dog-Language With a Scold in the Voice 
 Dogs' Kennel Treating Dogs Kindly Dogs in 
 their Proper Place 23 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 Aristocratic versus Plutocratic Come-by-Chance 
 Chance's Friend Nondescript Tinker Grindum 
 How I got Grindum Grindum's Friends Jack 
 and his Sister "Jack Took Me" End of an 
 Ugly Story Grindum's First Rat Pepper and 
 Wasp ........ 42 
 
vi Contents. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Page 
 
 A Day's Ratting An Autumn Walk " Steady, Dogs, 
 Steady" A Ferret Disabled Rats up a Pollard 
 A Rat-catcher's Picnic Rats in a Drain A 
 Weary Walk Home" Kennel, Dogs, Kennel" . 67 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 A Poor Day's Ratting A Rat in a Queer Place 
 Rats in my Lady's Chamber Rats in a House 
 Slaughter in a Cellar Dead Rats in a House . 85 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 A November Day A Laid-up Ferret A Tramp 
 Home in the Wet A Snug Evening Things 
 Students should Know Muzzling Ferrets 
 Sucking Blood A Strange Use for a Dog's Tail . 96 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 Rabbit Catching Tools for Rabbit Catching An 
 Easy Day's Rabbiting Ferreting a Bank A Deep 
 Dig in the Sand A Day with the Purse Nets 
 Necessity of Silence Ferrets without Muzzles 
 How to Kill Rabbits 113 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 Trip to the Seaside Surveying the Hunting Ground 
 A View from the Cliffs A Sea View The Rector's 
 Daughter Doctoring the Burrows Running out 
 Nets " Hie in, Good Dogs " . . . .130 
 
Contents. vii 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 Page 
 
 The Beginning of a Storm A Ship in Distress The 
 Village Harbour A Fisherman's Home Little 
 Jack, the Cripple Waiting for the Boats A 
 Rough Old Fish- Wife The Return of the Fisher- 
 men ........ 147 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 The Rector's Story A Ship in Danger Running 
 Straight on the Rocks To the Rescue Watching 
 the Boat Breaking up of the Ship Beyond the 
 Storms of Life Life in the Little One Nature's 
 Gifts What a Hodge-Podge . . . .165 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 ADDRESSED TO ALL SCHOOLBOYS. 
 
 EVER since I was a boy, and ah ! long, long 
 before that, I fancy, the one great anxiety of 
 parents of the upper and middle classes 
 blessed with large families has been, " What 
 are we to do with our boys ? " and the cry 
 goes on increasing, being intensified by the 
 depreciation in the value of land, and by our 
 distant colonies getting a little overstocked 
 with young gentlemen, who have been 
 banished to them by thousands, to struggle 
 and strive, sink or swim, as fate wills it. 
 At home, all professions are full and every- 
 thing has been tried ; and, go where you will, 
 even the children of the noble may be found 
 
 B 
 
Introduction. 
 
 wrestling with those of the middle and work- 
 ing classes for every piece of bread that falls 
 in the gutter. Nothing is infra dig. that 
 brings in a shilling, and all has been and is 
 being tried. The sons of the great are to be 
 found shoulder to shoulder with " Tommy 
 Atkins," up behind a hansom cab, keeping 
 shops, selling wines, horses, cigars, coals, and 
 generally endeavouring feebly to shoulder 
 the son of the working man out of the 
 race over the ropes. Fortunately Heaven 
 tempers the wind to the shorn lamb, and I 
 believe it has done so now. I believe kind 
 Dame Nature during the last summer has 
 stepped in and opened out an honourable 
 path for many gentlemen's sons, that I think 
 will be their salvation, and at all events, if it 
 does not make them all rich, will, if they only 
 follow it, make them most useful members of 
 society and keep them out of mischief and 
 out of their mammas' snug drawing-rooms. 
 
Introduction. 
 
 I have followed the path myself, and, after 
 fifty years' tramp down it, have been forced 
 to abandon it owing to gout and rheumatism. 
 I have not picked up a big fortune at it, or 
 become celebrated, except quite locally ; but 
 I have had a good time and helped the 
 world in general, and am content with my 
 past life. 
 
 I was the son of a worthy country parson, 
 who in my youth proposed to me in turn to 
 become a judge, a bishop, a general, a Glad- 
 stone, a Nelson, a Sir James Paget, and a 
 ritualistic curate ; but when talking to me on 
 the subject the good old man always said, 
 "Mind, my boy, though I propose these 
 various positions for you, yet, if you have any 
 decided preference yourself, I will not thwart 
 you, I will not fly in the face of nature. 
 
 For some time I thought I should rather 
 like to be a bishop, and to this day I think 
 I should have made a good one ; but the 
 
 B 2 
 
Introduction. 
 
 voice spoke at last, and my destiny was 
 settled. 
 
 With the modest capital of five shillings 
 given me by my father, and a mongrel 
 terrier, given me by a poacher who had to go 
 into retirement for killing a pheasant and 
 half killing a keeper, I began my career as 
 a but I had better give you one of my pro- 
 fessional cards. Here it is 
 
 BOB JOY, 
 
 RAT-CATCHER 
 
 To H.RH. The Prime of Wales, 
 The Nobility and Gentry. 
 
 I had a struggle at first. Rats, full-grown 
 ones, only fetched twopence each, and the 
 system adopted by farmers of letting their 
 
Introduction. 
 
 rat-killing, for, say, three pounds a year for 
 a farm of 400 acres, almost broke me ; 
 but I stuck to my profession, and do not 
 regret having done so. 
 
 In those days, and during all my active 
 life, I have had to work to live, owing to the 
 constant scarcity of rats ; but if I managed to 
 make a living then, what might not be done 
 now, when Nature has sent the rat to our 
 homesteads by thousands, and farmers and 
 others are being eaten off the face of the 
 earth by them ? 
 
 Why, my dear young friends, your fortune 
 stares you in the face, and you have only to 
 stretch out your hand and grasp it no ! I 
 have made a mistake : you have a little more 
 to do you have, first, to learn your profession, 
 which is no easy matter ; and to enable you 
 to do this, I intend writing the following 
 book for the use of schools (which I here- 
 with dedicate to the Head Masters of Eton, 
 
Introduction. 
 
 Harrow, Westminster, Rugby, and all other 
 schools) ; but in placing this book on your 
 school-desk, allow me to say that it is no 
 good having it there through the long school 
 hours unless you open it, read it, and deeply 
 ponder over it ; and more, my dear boys, let 
 me pray that you will take it home with you, 
 and, casting aside your usual holiday task, 
 study it well, and, as far as possible, actively 
 put in practice what I am going to try and 
 teach you. Some fathers may wish their 
 sons to enter on a more humble course of 
 life, but this I rather doubt. However/should 
 they do so, it will be only so much the better 
 for those who take it up : there will be more 
 room for them. Most mothers, I fear, will 
 object to it on the ground that rats and 
 ferrets don't smell nice ; but this objection is 
 not reasonable. They might as well say that 
 the whiff of a fox on a soft December morn- 
 ing as you ride to covert is not delicious ! 
 
Introduction. 
 
 Respect your parents, respect even their 
 prejudices ; gently point out to your father 
 that you are ambitious and wish for a career 
 in which you can distinguish yourself. 
 Above all, respect your mother, and show 
 your respect by not taking ferrets or dead 
 rats in your pockets into her drawing-room, 
 and by washing your hands a little between 
 fondling them and cuddling her. But to 
 finish this sermon, let me point out that 
 though in this great profession you will be 
 everlastingly mixed up with dogs of all sorts, 
 always make them come to you, and never go 
 to them. 
 
 One last word. If in the following pages 
 you come across a bit of grammar or spelling 
 calculated to make a Head Master sit up, 
 excuse it, and remember that I have been a 
 rat-catcher all my life, and as a class we are 
 not quite A i at book learning. 
 
STUDIES IN RAT CATCHING FOR 
 THE USE OF SCHOOLS. 
 
 : < :< 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 IN the following elementary treatise for the 
 use of public schools, I propose following 
 exactly the same plan as my parson (a good 
 fellow not afraid of a ferret or a rat) does 
 with his sermons that is, divide it into 
 different heads, and then jumble up all the 
 
en. i.] The Ferret Family. 9 
 
 heads with the body, till it becomes as 
 difficult to follow as a rat's hole in a soft 
 bank ; and, to begin with, I am going to talk 
 about ferrets, for without them rat-catching 
 won't pay. 
 
 Where ferrets first came from I am not 
 sure, but somewhere I have read that they 
 were imported from Morocco, and that they 
 are not natives of Great Britain any more 
 than the ordinary rat is. If they were im- 
 ported, then that importer ranks in my mind 
 with, but before, Christopher Columbus and 
 all such travellers. Anyhow it is quite clear 
 that nowhere in Great Britain are there wild 
 ferrets, for they are as distinct from the 
 stoat, the mouse-hunter, the pole-cat, etc., as 
 I am from a Red Indian ; and yet all belong 
 to the same family, so much so that I have 
 known of a marriage taking place between 
 the ferret and pole-cat, the offspring of which 
 have again married ferrets and in their turn 
 
io Studies in Rat Catching. [en. i. 
 
 have multiplied and increased, which is a 
 proof that they are not mules, for the chil- 
 dren of mules, either in birds or beasts, do 
 not have young ones. 
 
 There are two distinct colours in ferrets- 
 one is a rich dark brown and tan, and the 
 other white with pink eyes ; and in my opinion 
 one is just as good as the other for work, 
 though by preference I always keep the 
 white ferret, as it is sooner seen if it comes 
 out of a hole and works away down a fence 
 or ditch bottom. I have never known a 
 dark-coloured ferret coming among a litter 
 of white ones or a white among the dark ; 
 but there is a cross between the two which 
 produces a grizzly beast, generally bigger 
 than its mother, which I have for many years 
 avoided, though it is much thought of in 
 some parts of the Midlands. I fancy (though 
 I may be wrong) that the cross is a dull slow 
 ferret, wanting in dash and courage, and not 
 
CH. i.] Crossed with the Pole-Cat. 1 1 
 
 so friendly and affectionate as the others, 
 and therefore apt to stick with just its nose 
 out of a hole so that you can't pick it up, or 
 else it will " lay up " and give a lot of trouble 
 digging it out. 
 
 For rat-catching the female ferret should 
 always be used, as it is not half the size of 
 the male, and can therefore follow a rat 
 faster and better in narrow holes ; in fact, an 
 ordinary female ferret should be able to 
 follow a full-grown rat anywhere. The male 
 ferret should be kept entirely for rabbiting, as 
 he has not to follow down small holes, and 
 being stronger than the female can stand the 
 rough knocking about he often gets from 
 a rabbit better than his wife can. 
 
 In buying a ferret for work, get one from 
 nine to fifteen months old, as young ferrets I 
 find usually have more courage and dash 
 than an old one. They have not been so 
 often punished and therefore do not think 
 
12 Studies in Rat Catching. [en. i. 
 
 discretion the better part of valour. How 
 ever this will not be found to be an invariable 
 rule. I have known old ferrets that would 
 have faced a lion and seemed to care nothing 
 about being badly bitten ; whereas I have 
 known a young ferret turn out good-for- 
 nothing from having one sharp nip from a 
 rat. Such beasts had better be parted with, 
 for a bad, slow, or cowardly ferret is vexation 
 of spirit and not profitable. 
 
 If I am buying brown ferrets I always 
 pick the darkest, as I fancy they have most 
 dash. This may be only fancy, or it may 
 be the original ferret was white and that the 
 brown is the cross between it and the pole- 
 cat, and that therefore the darker the ferret, 
 the more like it is in temper as well as colour 
 to its big, strong, wild ancestor. Anyhow I 
 buy the dark ones. 
 
 If I am buying female ferrets, I like big 
 long ones, as a small ferret has not weight 
 
CH. i.] Choosing Ferrets. 13 
 
 enough to tackle a big rat, and therefore 
 often gets desperately punished. I like to 
 see the ferrets in a tub, end up, looking well 
 nourished and strong ; and directly I touch 
 the tub I like to see them dash out of their 
 hidden beds in the straw and rush to spring 
 up the sides like a lot of furies. When I 
 put my hand in to take one, I prefer not to 
 be bitten ; but yet I have often known a 
 ferret turn out very well that has begun by 
 making its teeth meet through my finger. 
 When I have the ferret in hand, I first look 
 at its tail and then at its feet, and if these 
 are clean it will do. If, on the other hand, I 
 find a thin appearance about the hairs of its 
 tail and a black-looking dust at the roots, the 
 ferret goes back into the tub ; or if the 
 underside of the feet are black and the claws 
 encrusted with dirt, I will have nothing to say 
 to it, as it has the mange and will be trouble- 
 some to cure. All this done, I put the ferret 
 
14 Studies in Rat Catching. [CH. i. 
 
 on the ground and keep picking it up and 
 letting it go ; if when I do this it sets up the 
 hairs of its tail, arches its back and hisses at 
 me, I may buy it ; but I know, if I do, I 
 shall have to handle it much to get it tame. 
 If, on the other hand, when I play with it the 
 ferret begins to dance sideways and play, I 
 pay down my money and take it at once, for 
 I have never known a playful ferret to prove 
 a bad one. 
 
 If when you get the ferret it is wild and 
 savage, it should be constantly handled till 
 it is quite tamed before it is used. Little 
 brothers and sisters will be found useful at 
 this. Give them the ferret to play with in an 
 empty or nearly empty barn or shed where it 
 cannot escape. Put into the shed with them 
 some long drain pipes, and tell them to ferret 
 rats out of them. The chances are they will 
 put the ferret through them and pick it up so 
 often, that it will learn there is nothing to 
 
CH.-I.] Hittches. 15 
 
 fear when it comes out of a real rat's hole, 
 and will ever after " come to hand " readily. 
 You had better not be in the way when the 
 children return to their mother or nurse. I 
 have had disagreeable moments on such 
 occasions. 
 
 Having got all your ferrets, the next ques- 
 tion is how to keep them. I have tried scores 
 of different houses for them. I have kept 
 them in a big roomy shed, in tubs, in boxes, 
 and in pits in the ground ; but now I always 
 use a box with three compartments. The 
 left-hand compartment should be the smallest 
 and filled with wheat-straw well packed in, 
 with a small round hole a little way up the 
 division, for the ferrets to use as a door. 
 The middle compartment should be empty 
 and have the floor and front made of wire 
 netting, to allow light, ventilation and drain- 
 age. The third compartment should be 
 entered from the middle one by a hole in the 
 
1 6 Studies in Rat Catching. [CH. i. 
 
 division, but should have a strong tin tray 
 fitting over the floor of it covered with sand, 
 which can be drawn out and cleaned; the 
 front of this compartment, too, should be 
 wire netting. The sand tray should be 
 removed and cleaned every day, even 
 Sundays. The house should stand on legs 
 about a foot high. Each compartment 
 should have a separate lid, and the little 
 entrance holes through the divisions should 
 have a slide to shut them, so that any one 
 division can be opened without all the ferrets 
 rushing out. The bed should be changed 
 once a week. Such a box as I have shown 
 is large enough for ten ferrets. For a 
 mother with a family a much smaller box will 
 suffice, but it should be made on the same 
 plan. For bedding use only wheat-straw. 
 Either barley-straw or hay will give ferrets 
 mange in a few days. 
 
 After housing the ferrets, they will require 
 
CH. i.] Feeding Ferrets. 17 
 
 feeding. I have always given my ferrets 
 bread and milk once or twice a week, which 
 was placed in flat tins in the middle com- 
 partment ; but care should be taken to clean 
 out the tins each time, as any old sour milk 
 in them will turn the fresh milk and make 
 the ferrets ill. The natural food of ferrets is 
 flesh the flesh of small animals and there- 
 fore it should be the chief food given. Small 
 birds, rats and mice are to them dainty 
 morsels, but the ferrets will be sure to drag 
 these into their beds to eat and will leave 
 the skins untouched ; these should be re- 
 moved each day. When my ferrets are not 
 in regular work they are fed just before 
 sunset ; if they are fed in the morning they 
 are no good for work all day, and one can 
 never tell (except on Sundays) that one of the 
 dogs may not find a rat that wants killing. 
 The day before real work, I give the ferrets 
 bread and milk in the morning, and nothing 
 
 c 
 
1 8 Studies in Rat Catching. [CH. i. 
 
 on the day they go out until their work is 
 over. This makes them keen. Remember 
 ferrets work hard in a big day's ratting, and 
 therefore should be well nourished and strong ; 
 a ferret that is not will not have the courage 
 to face a rat. 
 
 I have listened to all sorts of theories from 
 old hands about feeding ferrets, but have 
 followed the advice of few. For instance, I 
 have been told that if you give flesh, such as 
 rats and birds, to a ferret that has young 
 ones, it will drag it into the straw among the 
 little ones, who will get the blood on them, 
 and then the mother will eat them by mistake. 
 All I can say is, I have reared hundreds of 
 young ferrets and have always given the 
 mothers flesh. It is true that ferrets will eat 
 their young, and the way to bring this about 
 is to disturb the babies in the nest. If you 
 leave them quite alone till they begin to creep 
 about I believe there is no danger. 
 
CH. i.] "Bar the Tail! 1 19 
 
 Then many old rat-catchers never give a 
 ferret a rat with its tail on, as they believe 
 there is poison in it. I remember one old 
 fellow saying to me as he cut off the tail 
 before putting the rat into the ferrets' box, 
 " Bar the tail I allus bars the tail there's 
 wenom in the tail." There may be " wenom " 
 in it ; but, if there is, it won't hurt the ferrets, 
 for they never eat it or the skin. 
 
 If ferrets are properly cared for they are 
 rarely ill, and the only trouble I have ever 
 had is with mange, which, as I have said 
 before, attacks the tail and feet. Most rat- 
 catchers keep a bottle of spirits of tar, with 
 which they dress the affected parts. It cures 
 the mange, but, by the way the poor little 
 beasts hop about after being dressed, I fear it 
 stings dreadfully. I have always used sul- 
 phur and lard, and after rubbing it well in a 
 few times I have always found it worked a 
 cure. The objection to sulphur and lard 
 
 C 2 
 
2O Studies in Rat Catching. [en. I. 
 
 is that it does not hurt, for I have noticed 
 that sort of man generally prefers using a 
 remedy that hurts a lot that is, where the 
 patient is not himself, but an animal. 
 
 No big day's ratting ever takes place 
 without a ferret getting badly bitten. When 
 this is so, the ferret should never be used 
 again until it is quite well. It should be 
 sent home and put in a quiet box, apart from 
 the others, and the bites gently touched 
 with a little sweet oil from time to time ; or, 
 if it festers much, it should be sponged with 
 warm water. 
 
 I have often had ferrets die of their 
 wounds, and these have usually been the 
 best I had. Again, with wounds the old 
 rat-catcher uses the tar-bottle, chiefly, I think, 
 because it hurts the ferret, and therefore 
 must have " a power of wirtue." 
 
 Before going further I should point out to 
 all students of this ennobling profession that 
 
CH. i.] Handling Ferrets. 21 
 
 the very first thing they have to learn is to 
 pick up a ferret. Don't grab it by its tail, or 
 hold it by its head as you would a mad bull- 
 dog ; but take hold of it lightly round the 
 shoulders, with its front legs falling gracefully 
 out below from between your fingers. Then 
 when you go to the box for your ferrets, and 
 they come clambering up the side like a pack 
 of hungry wolves, put your hand straight in 
 among them without a glove, and pick up 
 which one you require. Don't hesitate a 
 moment. Don't dangle your hand Over 
 their heads till you can make a dash and 
 catch one. The ferrets will only think your 
 hand is their supper coming and will grab it, 
 with no ill intent ; but if you put it down 
 steadily and slowly, they will soon learn 
 you only do 30 to take them out, and your 
 hand will become as welcome to them as 
 flowers in spring. 
 
 True, at first, with strange ferrets you may 
 
22 Studies in Rat Catching. [CH. i. 
 
 be bitten ; but it is not a very serious thing if 
 you are, as ferrets' bites are never venomous, 
 as the bites of rats often are. I have in my 
 time been bitten by ferrets many dozens of 
 times and have never suffered any ill effects. 
 There, I think that is enough for your first 
 lesson, so I will send it off at once and get it 
 printed for you. 
 
'3 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE first chapter of this lesson-book has 
 gone to the printer, so I don't quite know 
 what I said in it, but I think we had finished 
 the home-life of the ferret and were just 
 taking it out of its box. Different professors 
 have different opinions as to what is next to 
 be done with it. Many (and they are good 
 men too) think you should put it into a box 
 about eighteen inches long, ten inches high, 
 and ten wide ; the box to be divided into two 
 compartments, with a lid to each, and with 
 leather loops to these lids through which to 
 thrust a pointed spade so as to carry it on 
 your shoulder. I have tried this plan, but I 
 have never quite liked it. I have found that 
 after a heavy day's work the box was apt to 
 
24 Studies in Rat Catching. [CH. n. 
 
 get heavy and feel as if it were a grand- 
 father's clock hanging on your back. Then 
 the ratting spade was engaged instead of 
 being free to mump a rat on the head in a 
 hurry, or point out a likely hole to the dogs. 
 When a ferret was wanted, all the others 
 would dash out and have to be hunted about 
 to be re-caught. Now and then the lids 
 came open and let all out ; and now and then 
 I let the box slip off the spade and fall to 
 the ground, and then I felt sorry for the 
 ferrets inside it ! No, I have always carried 
 my ferrets in a good strong canvas bag, with 
 a little clean straw at the bottom, and a 
 leather strap and buckle stitched on to it with 
 which to close it. Don't tie the bag with a 
 piece of string it is sure to get lost ; and 
 don't have a stiff buckle on your strap that 
 takes ten minutes to undo. Remember the 
 life of a rat may depend upon your getting 
 your ferret out quickly. Never throw the bag 
 
CH. ii.] Ferrets Fighting. 25 
 
 of ferrets down ; lay them down gently. 
 Don't leave the bag on the ground in a 
 broiling sun with some of the ferrets in it 
 while you are using the others, or in a cold 
 draughty place on a cold day ; find a snug 
 corner for them, if you can, and cover th'em 
 up with a little straw or grass to keep them 
 warm. 
 
 If, when carrying your ferrets, they chatter 
 in the bag, let them ; it is only singing, not 
 fighting. I have never known a ferret hurt 
 another in a bag. Always bag your ferret 
 as soon as you have done with it ; don't drag 
 it about in your hand for half an hour, and 
 don't put it in your pocket, as it will make 
 your coat smell. 
 
 When I have done work and turned 
 towards home, I have made it a rule always 
 to put a dead rat into the bag, as I think it 
 amuses the ferrets and breaks the monotony 
 of a long journey ; just as when I run down 
 
26 Studies in Rat Catching. [CH. n. 
 
 home I like taking a snack at Swindon 
 Station, just to divert my mind from the 
 racketing of the train and the thought of the 
 hard seat. When you get home, give the 
 ferrets a rat for every two of them, if you 
 can afford it, for then they need only eat the 
 best joints. If you have not many dead rats 
 and want to save some for the morrow, one 
 rat for three ferrets is enough for twenty-four 
 hours ; but don't forget to give them water 
 or milk. 
 
 I think I have said enough as to the 
 management of ferrets, and will go on to 
 speak of the necessary tools. The chief 
 thing is a good ratting spade. What the 
 musket is to the soldier, the spade is to the 
 rat-catcher. You may get on without it, but 
 you won't do much killing. I have tried 
 many shapes, but the one I like best is on 
 the pattern of the above drawing. It should 
 not be too heavy, but yet strong ; and, there- 
 
CH. ii.] The Ratting Spade. 27 
 
 fore, the handle should be made of a good 
 piece of ash, and the other parts of the best 
 tempered steel, and the edge should be sharp 
 enough to cut quickly through a thick root. 
 The spike should be sharp, so as easily to 
 enter the ground and feel for a lost hole. 
 This will constantly save a long dig and 
 much time ; besides, one can often bolt a rat 
 by a few well-directed prods in a soft bank 
 not that I approve of this, as there may be 
 more than one rat in the hole, and by prod- 
 ding out one you are contented to leave 
 others behind. No, I think the ferret should 
 go down every hole challenged by the dogs, 
 as then you are pretty sure of making a clean 
 job of it. 
 
 Besides the spade, I have always kept a 
 few trap boxes. These are to catch a ferret 
 should one lay up and have to be left behind. 
 I bait them with a piece of rat and place 
 them at the mouth of the hole, and it is rare 
 
28 Studies in Rat Catching. [CH. n. 
 
 I don't find the ferret in it in the morning. 
 I also take one of these traps with me if I 
 am going where rats are very numerous ; 
 then, if a ferret stops too long in a hole, I 
 stick the mouth of the trap over the hole 
 and pack it round with earth and stop up all 
 the bolt holes, and then go on working with 
 the other ferrets. When the sluggard is at 
 last tired of the hole, it walks into the trap, 
 shoving up the wire swing door, which falls 
 down behind it, and there it has to stop till 
 you fetch it. 
 
 If I am going to ferret wheat stacks where 
 rats have worked strong, I take with me 
 half a dozen pieces of thin board about a 
 foot long. I do so for this reason. The 
 first thing rats do when they take possession 
 of a stack is to make a good path, or run, all 
 round it just under the eaves ; and when 
 disturbed by ferrets, they get into this run 
 and keep running away round and round the 
 
CH. ii.] Ratting Tools. 29 
 
 stack without coming to the ground. There- 
 fore, before putting in the ferrets, I take a 
 ladder, and going round the eaves of the 
 stack I stick the boards in so as to cut off 
 these runs, and when a rat goes off for a 
 gallop he comes to "no thoroughfare/' and 
 feeling sure the ferret is after him, he in 
 desperation comes to the ground, and then 
 the dogs can have a chance. I once killed 
 twenty-eight rats out of a big stack in twenty 
 minutes after the ferrets were put in, all 
 thanks to these stop-boards; and though I 
 ran the ferrets through and through the stack 
 afterwards, I did not start another, and so I 
 believe I had got the lot. 
 
 I think I have enumerated all the tools 
 required for rat-catching. I need not men- 
 tion a knife and a piece of string, as all 
 honest men have them in their pocket 
 always, even on Sundays. Some rat-catchers 
 take with them thick leather gloves to save 
 
3O Studies in Rat CatcJiing. [CH. n. 
 
 their getting bitten by a rat or a ferret ; but I 
 despise such effeminate ways, and I consider 
 he does not know his profession if he cannot 
 catch either ferret or rat with his naked 
 hands. 
 
 I must now turn to the subject of dogs 
 one far more important than either ferrets or 
 tools, and one so large that if I went on 
 writing and writing to the end of my days I 
 should not get to the end of it, and so shall 
 only make a few notes upon it as a slight 
 guide to the student, leaving him to follow 
 it up and work it out for himself; but in so 
 doing I beg to say that his future success as 
 a rat-catcher will depend on his mastering 
 the subject. 
 
 But, before proceeding further, I am 
 anxious to say a few words in parenthesis for 
 the benefit of the Head Masters of our 
 schools. Admirable as their academies are 
 for turning out Greek and Latin scholars, I 
 
CH. ii.] Hints to Schoolmasters. 31 
 
 cannot help thinking a proper provision is 
 seldom made in their establishments for 
 acquiring a real working knowledge of the 
 profession of a rat-catcher; and I wish to 
 suggest that it would be as well to insist on 
 all those students who wish to take up this 
 subject keeping at school at least one good 
 dog and a ferret, and that two afternoons a 
 week should be set apart entirely for field 
 practice, and that the cost of this should be 
 jotted down at the end of each term in the 
 little school account that is sent home to the 
 students' parents. I know most high-spirited 
 boys will object to this and call it a fresh 
 tyranny, and ever after hate me for proposing 
 it ; but I do it under a deep sense of duty, 
 being convinced that it is far better they 
 should perfectly master the rudimentary 
 knowledge of such an honest profession as 
 that of rat-catcher, than that they should drift 
 on through their school life with no definite 
 
32 Studies in Rat Catching. [CH. n. 
 
 future marked out, finally to become perhaps 
 such scourges of society as M.P.s who make 
 speeches when Parliament is not sitting. 
 Judging from the columns of the newspapers, 
 there must be many thousands who come to 
 this most deplorable end ; and if I can only 
 turn one from such a vicious course, I shall 
 feel I have benefitted mankind even more 
 than by killing rats and other vermin. 
 
 Now I must return to the subject of dogs, 
 and in doing so I will first begin on their 
 masters, for to make a good dog, a good 
 master is also absolutely necessary. Any- 
 body that has thought about it knows that 
 as is the master, so is the dog. A quiet man 
 has a quiet dog, a quarrelsome man a 
 quarrelsome dog, a bright quick man a 
 bright quick dog, and a loafing idle ruffian 
 a slinking slothful cur. 
 
 First of all, then, the dog's master must 
 understand dog talk ; for they do talk, and 
 
en. ii.] Learning Dog Language. 33 
 
 eloquently too, with their tongues, their ears, 
 their eyes, their legs, their tail, and even 
 with the hairs on their backs ; and therefore 
 don't be astonished if you find me saying in 
 the following pages, " Pepper told me this," 
 or " Wasp said so-and-so." Why, I was once 
 told by a bull terrier that a country policeman 
 was a thief, and, " acting on information re- 
 ceived," I got the man locked up in prison 
 for three months, and it just served him right. 
 Having learnt dog language, use it to your 
 dog in a reasonable way : talk to him as a 
 friend, tell him the news of the day, of your 
 hopes and fears, your likes and dislikes, but 
 above all use -talk always in the place of a 
 whip. For instance, when breaking in a 
 young dog not to kill a ferret, take hold of 
 the dog with a short line, put the ferret on 
 the ground in front of him, and when he 
 makes a dash at it say, " What are you up 
 to ? War ferret ! Why, I gave four and six- 
 
 D 
 
34 Studies in Rat Catching. [CH. i^ 
 
 pence for that, you fool, and now you want to 
 kill it ! Look here (picking the ferret up and 
 fondling it), this is one of my friends. Smell it 
 (putting it near his nose). Different from a rat, 
 eh ? Rather sweet, ain't it ? War ferret, war 
 ferret ! Would you, you rascal ? Ain't you 
 ashamed of yourself ? War ferret, war ferret ! " 
 Repeat this a few times for two or three days, 
 and when you first begin working the dog and 
 he is excitedly watching for a rat to bolt, just 
 say " War. ferret " to him, and he will be sure 
 to understand. Should he, however, in his 
 excitement make a dash at a ferret, shout at 
 him to stop, and then, picking up the ferret, 
 rub it over his face, all the time scolding him 
 well for what he has done ; but don't hit him, 
 and probably he will never look at a ferret 
 
 again. 
 
 In my opinion there is nothing like a 
 thrashing to spoil a dog or a boy ; reason 
 with them and talk to them, and if they are 
 
CH. ii.] " With a Scold in your Voice" 35 
 
 worth keeping they will understand and obey. 
 Mind, a dog must always obey, and obey at 
 the first order. Always give an order in a 
 decided voice as if you meant it, and never 
 overlook the slightest disobedience. One 
 short whistle should always be enough. If 
 the dog does not obey, call him up and, 
 repeating the whistle, scold him with a scold 
 in your voice. Don't shout or bawl at him 
 for all the country to hear and the rats too, 
 but just make your words sting. If he 
 repeats his offence, put a line and collar on 
 him and lead him for half an hour, telling him 
 all the time why you do so, and he will be so 
 ashamed of himself that the chances are he 
 will obey you ever after. 
 
 Put yourself in the dog's place. Fancy 
 if, when you have " kicked a bit over the 
 traces" at school, the head-master, instead 
 of thrashing you, made you walk up and 
 down the playground or cricket-field with 
 
 D 2 
 
36 Studies in Rat Catching, [en. n. 
 
 him for half an hour ; but no, that 
 would be too awful ; it would border on 
 brutality ! But you would not forget it in 
 a hurry. 
 
 We humans often behave well and do 
 good, not because it is our duty so to do, but 
 for what the world will say and for the praise 
 we may get. Dogs are not in all things 
 superior to humans, and in this matter of 
 praise I fear they are even inferior to us. 
 They most dearly love praise, and a good dog 
 should always get it for any and every little 
 service he renders to man. Remember, he is 
 the only living thing that takes a pleasure in 
 working for man, and his sole reward is man's 
 approbation. Give it him, then, and give it 
 him hot and warm when he deserves it, and 
 he will be willing to do anything for you and 
 will spend his life worshipping you and 
 working for you ; for better, for worse, for 
 richer, for poorer, he is yours, with no 
 
CH. ii.] The Dogs Kennel. 37 
 
 sneaking thoughts of a divorce court in the 
 background. 
 
 There is another thing a master should 
 always do for his dog himself and do it with 
 reason. See to his comfort ; see that he has 
 good food and water and is comfortably 
 lodged. Don't let him be tied up to a hate- 
 ful kennel in a back yard, baked by the sun in 
 summer and nearly frozen in winter ; often 
 without water, and with food thrown into a 
 dish that is already half full of sour and dirty 
 remains of yesterday's dinner. This is not 
 reasonable and is cruel. When he is not 
 with you, shut him up in a kennel, big or little, 
 made as nearly as you can have it on the 
 model of a kennel for hounds. Let it be cool 
 and airy in summer and snug and warm in 
 winter ; keep all clean kennel, food, dishes, 
 water and beds. Don't forget that different 
 dogs have different requirements ; for in- 
 stance, that a long thick coated dog will 
 
38 Studies in Rat Catching. [CH. n. 
 
 sleep with comfort out in the snow, while a 
 short-coated one will shiver in a thick bed of 
 straw. Picture to yourself, as you tuck the 
 warm blankets round you on a cold winter's 
 night, what your thin- coated pointer is under- 
 going in a draughty kennel on a bare plank 
 bed, chained up to a " misery trap " in the 
 back yard, which is half full of drifted snow. 
 Think of it, and get up and put the dog in a 
 spare loose box in the stable for the night, and 
 have a proper kennel made for him in the 
 morning. 
 
 I once had a favourite dog named 
 11 Rough" that died of distemper. A small 
 child asked me a few days afterwards if dogs 
 when they died went to heaven, and I, not 
 knowing better, answered, "Yes"; and the 
 child said, "Won't Rough wag his old tail 
 when he sees me come in ? " When you 
 "come in" I hope there will be all your 
 departed dogs wagging their tails to meet 
 
CH. ii.] Treating Dogs Kindly. 39 
 
 you. It will depend upon how you have 
 treated them here ; but take my word for it, 
 my friend, you will never be allowed to pass 
 that door if the dogs bark and growl at you. 
 
 Don't suppose I am a sentimental " fat pug 
 on a string " sort of man. Next to humans I 
 like dogs best of all creatures. Why, I have 
 made my living by their killing rats for me at 
 twopence per rat and three pound a farm, and 
 I am grateful : but I like dogs in their proper 
 place. For instance, as a rule, I dislike a 
 dog in the house. The house was meant 
 for man and should be kept for him. I 
 think when a man goes indoors his dog 
 should be shut up in the kennel and 
 not be allowed to wander about doing 
 mischief, eating trash, learning to loaf, and 
 under no discipline. Now and then I do 
 allow an old dog that has done a life's 
 hard work to roam about as he likes, and 
 even walk into my study (I mean kitchen) 
 
4O Studies in Rat Catching. [CH. n. 
 
 and sit before the fire and chat with 
 me ; but, then, such dogs have established 
 characters, and nothing can spoil them ; 
 besides, they are wise beasts with a vast 
 experience, and I can learn a lot from them. 
 It was from one of these I learnt all about 
 the prigging policeman. 
 
 A young dog is never good for much who 
 is allowed to run wild ; every one is his 
 master and he obeys no one, and when he is 
 taken out he is dull and stupid, thinking more 
 of the kitchen scraps than of business. No, 
 when I go to work, I like to let the dogs 
 out myself, to see them dash about, dance 
 around, jump up at me and bark with 
 joy. I like to see the young ones topple 
 each other over in sport, and the old ones 
 gallop on ahead to the four crossways, and 
 stand there watching to see which way I 
 am going, and then, when I give them the 
 direction with a wave of the hand, bolt off 
 
CH. IL] Dogs in their Proper Place. 41 
 
 down the road with a wriggle of content. 
 You might trust your life to dogs in such 
 a joyful temper, for they would be sure to 
 stand by you. 
 
 Thank you, young gentlemen; that is 
 enough for this morning's lesson. You may 
 now amuse yourselves with your Ovid or 
 Euclid. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 I AM a working man, or rather have been till 
 I got the rheumatics, and as such I naturally 
 stick to my own class and prefer associating 
 with those of my own sort, and therefore I 
 always keep working dogs. 
 
 I have often bred aristocratic dogs, dogs 
 descended from great prize-winners and with 
 long pedigrees, and among them I have had 
 some good ones, honest and true ; but as a 
 rule I must say my experience proves that 
 the shorter the pedigree the better the dog, 
 and now if I could get them I should like to 
 keep dogs that never had a father. Some 
 people I know call me a cad, a clod, a chaw- 
 bacon, etc., and they call my dogs curs and 
 mongrels. Such men talk nonsense and 
 
CH. in.] Aristocratic v. Pie. 43 
 
 should be kept specially to make speeches 
 during the recess. I don't care to defend 
 myself, but I must stand up for my dogs 
 against all comers ; and I assert boldly that, 
 nine times out of ten, a dog with no pedigree 
 is worth two with a long one. When I get a 
 new dog I never ask who he is, or who his 
 father was, but I go by his looks and his per- 
 formances. There are dogs like men in all 
 classes, who have either a mean, spiteful, 
 vicious look, or a dull, heavy, dead one ; such 
 I avoid both in dog and man, for I find they 
 are not worth knowing. Any other dog will 
 do for me, and even now, though I don't often 
 go ratting, I have as good a lot as ever stood 
 at a hole, and I don't think I can do better 
 than describe them as a guide to students 
 when they come to getting a kennel together. 
 First of all, I never give a lot of money for 
 a dog how can I with rats at twopence 
 each ? but, if I can, I drop on a likely-looking 
 
44 Studies in Rat Catching. [CH. in. 
 
 young one about a year old who was going 
 to be " put away " on account of the tax. I 
 got the oldest I have now in the kennel in 
 this way. It followed George Adams, the 
 carrier, home one night, and to this day has 
 never been claimed ; and when the tax- 
 collector spoke to him about it, he offered it 
 to me, and I took it and gave it the name of 
 " Come-by-chance," but in the family and 
 among friends she is now called " Chance." 
 If Chance is of any family I should think 
 her mother was a setter and her father a bob- 
 tail sheep-dog ; but, then, I can't make out 
 where she got her legs ! She is red and 
 white, with a perfect setter's head. She has 
 the hind parts of a sheep-dog and evidently 
 never had a tail ; and her legs, which are very 
 thick, would be short for a big terrier. Such 
 are her looks, which certainly are not much to 
 speak of ; but if I had the pen of a Sir Walter 
 Scott I could not do credit to the perfection 
 
CH. in.] Come^by ^Chance. 45 
 
 of her character. For seven years she has 
 been the support of my business, and I can 
 safely say she has caused the death of more 
 rats than all my other dogs put together. I 
 say caused, for she is slow at killing and leaves 
 this matter of detail to younger hands. If 
 another dog is not near she will catch a rat 
 and even kill it ; but she has a soft mouth, 
 and all the other dogs, except quite the 
 youngest, know this, and, against the rule, will 
 always dash in when she has a rat in her 
 mouth and take it from her, and she gives it 
 up without a struggle. 
 
 No, her forte is to find a rat. She is 
 always in and out, up the bank, through the 
 hedge, down the bank ; not a tuft of grass 
 escapes her, and she would hunt down each 
 side of Regent Street and in and out of the 
 carriages if she found herself there. She 
 lives hunting. Nothing ever escapes her; 
 one sniff at the deepest and most turn-about 
 
46 Studies in Rat Catching. [CH. in. 
 
 hole is enough. If the rat is not in, on she 
 goes in a minute ; but should it be ensconced 
 deep down in the furthest corner, she stops 
 at once and just turns her head round and 
 says quietly to me, " Here's one." Then, 
 whilst I am getting out a ferret, over the 
 bank she goes, in and out the hedge in all 
 directions, and never fails to find and mark 
 every bolt-hole for the other dogs to stand at 
 that belongs to the one where the rat is. 
 As soon as I begin to put in the ferret, she 
 will come over the hedge, give herself a 
 shake, and sit down and watch the pro- 
 ceedings, not offering to take a part herself, 
 as she feels there are more able dogs ready, 
 and that this is not her strong point. Sup- 
 pose a rat bolts and is killed and the ferret 
 comes out, Chance will never leave the hole 
 till she has taken a sniff at it to make sure 
 all the rats have been cleared out. I have 
 never known her make a mistake, Ifs/ie says 
 
CH, in.] Come-by-Chance s Friend. 47 
 
 there is a rat in, there is one without any 
 doubt ; if she says there is not, it is no good 
 running a ferret through the hole. Should I 
 be alone, with no one to look out for the 
 ferret when it comes out on the other side of 
 a bank, Chance without a word being said to 
 her will get over and look out, and directly 
 the ferret appears will come back to me and 
 give a wriggle, looking in the direction of the 
 ferret, and then I know I must get over and 
 pick it up. 
 
 She has one peculiarity. When she 
 followed George Adams home, seven years 
 ago, she was shy and scared ; but, as it was 
 a cold night, George, being a kind-hearted 
 fellow, invited her to step indoors, an invita- 
 tion sne accepted in a frightened sort of way. 
 On the hearth sat a little girl of three years 
 old, eating her supper, and Chance, doubtless 
 feeling very hungry, came and sat down in 
 front of her and watched her with a wistful 
 
48 Studies in Rat Catching, [en. in. 
 
 look. The child was not afraid and soon 
 began feeding the dog, who took the pieces 
 of food most gently from her fingers. When 
 the child was taken up to bed, Chance 
 secretly followed, and getting under the crib 
 slept there all night. Only once since then 
 has Chance failed to sleep in that same place, 
 and that was the first night I had her. She 
 was shut up in the kennel and never stopped 
 barking all night. Since then she has always 
 followed me home, eaten her supper at 
 the kitchen door, and then gone off to her 
 bed under the crib. Early in the morning 
 she is again at my door and never goes near 
 George's house till bed-time. 
 
 If Chance has no tail, the next dog on the 
 list, " Tinker," makes up the average/ He 
 is a little black, hard-coated dog, with the 
 head of a greyhound and tail of a foxhound. 
 His head is nearly as long as his body, and 
 his tail is just a little longer. In all ways he 
 
CH. in.] Nondescript Tinker. 49 
 
 is a proficient at rat-catching, except that he 
 has been known to mark a hole where there 
 was no rat ; but his strong point is killing. 
 He will stand well back from a hole, and it 
 does not matter how many rats bolt, or how 
 fast, each gets one snap and is dead and 
 dropped without Tinker having moved a 
 foot. I named him Tinker, for a tinker 
 gave him to rne " cos he warn't no sort 
 of waller." 
 
 Then on my list next comes " Grindum," 
 a mongrel bull-terrier, just the tenderest 
 hearted, mildest dispositioned dog that ever 
 killed a rat. He has but a poor nose and 
 is not clever, but he has one strong point, 
 which he developed for himself without 
 being taught. It is this : when I am ferret- 
 ing a thick hairy bank with a big ditch, 
 Grindum always goes some ten yards off and 
 places himself in the ditch, and, let the excite- 
 ment be what it will, he never moves ; and 
 
 E 
 
50 Studies in Rat Catching. [CH. m. 
 
 should a rat in the thick grass escape the 
 other dogs and bolt down the ditch, it is a 
 miracle if it does not die when it reaches him. 
 I have better and cleverer dogs, I know ; but I 
 think Grindum brings in as many twopences 
 as any of them, and we are not going to part ! 
 The way I got Grindum is quite a little history, 
 and I will tell it, though if you boys like, you 
 can skip it and go on with a more serious part 
 of your lesson. 
 
 Not far from where I lived there was, in a 
 most out-of-the-way corner on a common, an 
 old sand-pit, and in this a miserable dilapi- 
 dated cottage, consisting of two rooms. This 
 for some years had been empty, but one fine 
 morning was discovered to be inhabited by 
 a man, his wife and two children a boy of 
 twelve and a girl of seven and a bull-terrier. 
 No one knew anything about them or where 
 they had come from, and when the landlord 
 of the hut went to eject them, he found them 
 
CH. in.] Grindum. 51 
 
 in such a miserable half-starved condition 
 that he left them alone. 
 
 Our parson called on them three times 
 the first time the wife told him they did not 
 like strangers and parsons in particular ; 
 the second time the husband told him to 
 clear out sharp, or he would do him a mis- 
 chief; and the third time the man took up a 
 knife and began sharpening it, preparatory, 
 he said, to cutting the parson's throat ! 
 
 Two months after this the man, after 
 sitting drinking in the village pot-house all 
 the morning, stepped round to an old mid- 
 wife and asked her " to come and lay his 
 wife out." The woman went and did her 
 work and said nothing at the time, but later 
 on it was whispered about that she had told 
 some of her pals that " the poor crittur was 
 black and blue, and that it was on her mind 
 that the husband had murdered her ! " 
 After this, as I .passed the cottage, I often 
 
 E 2 
 
52 Studies in Rat Catching. [CH. in. 
 
 saw the two children sitting on a log of 
 wood outside, with the bull-dog sitting 
 between them. None of the three ever 
 moved out ; all blinked their eyes at me as I 
 passed, as if they were unaccustomed to the 
 sight of a fellow-creature. 
 
 Two or three months passed, during 
 which the man was constantly drinking at 
 the village public-house ; but he always left 
 at sundown " to look after the kids," he 
 said. Then there was a poaching fray on a 
 nobleman's estate near. Six keepers came 
 on five poachers one moonlight night. 
 There was a hard fight, and at last the 
 keepers tP Dk two of the men and the other 
 three bolted, but one was recognized as the 
 man from the sand-pit and was " wanted " 
 by the police. 
 
 A few nights after this I was walking 
 down a lane in the dark near my house, 
 when the sand-pit man stepped out of the 
 
CH. in.] How I Got Grindum. 53 
 
 hedge, leading his dog by a cord, and turning 
 to me said, " Here, master, if you want a 
 good dog, here is one for you ; I am off to 
 give myself up to the police, and I am going 
 to turn queen's evidence against my pals." 
 I replied that I did not want such a dog, so 
 he said, " All right, then I'll cut his throat," 
 and then and there prepared to do so. This 
 was more than I could stand, so I took the 
 cord and led the dog away, but before doing 
 so, I asked, " How about your children?" 
 He gave a short laugh, and said, " They 
 would be properly provided for." It after- 
 wards turned out that soon after leaving me 
 he walked straight into the arms of two 
 policemen, who saved him the trouble of 
 giving himself up by taking him into 
 custody. 
 
 I led my new dog home and tied him 
 up in the corner of an open wood-shed, 
 giving him a bundle of straw and a dish of 
 
54 Studies in Rat Catching. [CH. in. 
 
 bones, and by the starved look of him I 
 should say this was the biggest meal he had 
 ever had in his life. 
 
 I sat up late that night reading, and all 
 the time in a remote corner of my mind the 
 sand-pit man, the two children and the dog 
 kept turning about, till at last, about mid- 
 night or later, I thought I would go to bed ; 
 but before doing so I made up my mind that 
 I would see if my new dog was all right. I 
 lit a lantern and stepped out of the door and 
 found it was blowing and snowing and biting 
 cold. Mercifully I persevered and reached 
 the wood-shed, and what I saw there by 
 the light of my lantern did startle me. There 
 was the bull-dog sure enough lying curled up 
 in the straw blinking hard at me, but could 
 I believe my eyes ? there lying with him, 
 with their arms entwined round each other 
 and round the dog, were the two children 
 from the sand-pit fast asleep, but looking so 
 
CH. in.] Grindums Friends. 55 
 
 pale and pinched I thought they must be 
 dead. 
 
 I will give place to no man living at rat 
 catching and minding dogs, but here was a 
 pretty mess, for I am no good with little 
 children ; so putting down my lantern, I 
 hurried back to the house and got two rugs 
 and with them wrapped the children and dog 
 up snugly. Then I went in and woke up 
 my wife, who had already gone to bed, and 
 called some other women who were in the 
 house, and after telling them what I had 
 found, I made up a big fire in the kitchen 
 and put on some water to boil. In a very 
 few minutes my wife was downstairs and 
 battling her way with me off to the wood- 
 shed. I untied the dog and moved him 
 away from the children. This woke them 
 both, and they sat up and rubbed their eyes, 
 and the poor boy appeared almost scared to 
 death, but the little girl was quite quiet, and 
 
56 Studies in Rat Catching. [CH. in. 
 
 only watched his face with a sad careworn 
 old look which I pray I may never see on a 
 child's face again. 
 
 My wife is really smart with little children, 
 and in half no time she was on her knees croon- 
 ing over them, and soon she had the girl in 
 her arms ; but when I attempted to pick up the 
 boy he only screamed and struggled, and 
 kept calling out, " Grindum, Grinduoi ! I 
 won't leave Grindum. I shall be killed if I 
 leave Grindum. Let me stay with Grindum." 
 I assured him he should not be separated from 
 Grindum " never no more," and at last I 
 partially quieted him, andjie allowed me to 
 carry him into the kitchen and place him on 
 a stool in front of the fire with his sister, 
 while his beloved Grindum sat by his side 
 blinking as if nothing unusual had taken 
 place, and as if he had done the same each 
 night for the last three months and felt a 
 little bored by it. 
 
CH. in.] Jack and his Sister. 57 
 
 The first thing to be done, my wife said, 
 was to feed the children, and while she and 
 the other women busied about getting it 
 ready, I sat and watched them. Both were 
 remarkably pretty ; both dark, with finely cut 
 features, big eyes and thick soft black hair ; 
 but yet in different ways both had something 
 sad about them. The boy never sat still for 
 a moment, but kept glancing fearfully at me, 
 then at the women, and then at the door, as 
 if he expected something dreadful to happen, 
 and all the time kept grasping the arm of his 
 little sister with one hand as if for protection, 
 and clinging to the soft skin of Grindum's 
 neck with the other. If he caught my eye, 
 or if I spoke to him, he flinched as if I had 
 struck him, and turned livid and tugged so 
 hard at Grindum's skin that the poor dog's 
 eyes were pulled into mere slits, through 
 which I could see he yet went on blinking at 
 the fire. The girl sat half turned round to 
 
5 8 Studies in Rat Catching. [CH. in. 
 
 the boy and never took her eyes off his face, 
 looking the very essence of womanly pity 
 and love. Now and then when he suffered 
 from a paroxysm of fear, she would softly 
 stroke his face, which appeared to soothe him 
 instantly ; but nothing she could do could 
 ever stop the wild restless look in his eyes or 
 prevent his glancing about as if watching for 
 some dreadful apparition. It was a sad, sad 
 picture, made doubly striking by the utter 
 stolidity and indifference of that awful dog, 
 Grindum. 
 
 Soon hot basins of bread and milk were 
 prepared, which both children eat ravenously, 
 and then they were put into steaming hot 
 baths, washed, dried, combed, and wrapped 
 in blankets ; but when we attempted to take 
 them up to the nice warm beds that had 
 been prepared for them, there was the same 
 wild terrified cry from the boy for Grindum ; 
 and to pacify him the dog had to be taken 
 
CH. in.] " Jack Took Me!' 59 
 
 upstairs with them, and half an hour later, 
 when my wife and I peeped into the room, 
 we saw the two children locked in each 
 other's arms fast asleep, with Grindum 
 curled up on the bed next to the boy, yet 
 blinking horribly, but perfectly composed 
 and making himself at home. 
 
 How those two children found their way 
 that night through a blinding snow-storm to 
 their only living friend, the dear blinking 
 Grindum, I never could find out. All I 
 could ever get from the boy was, " Oh, I 
 always go where Grindum goes ! " and the 
 little girl could only say, "Jack took me." 
 My wife says angels guided them. Maybe 
 she's right, but I hardly think angels would 
 be likely to go about on such a night ; still 
 my wife went out in the snow and wind to 
 the shed and got out of her snug bed to do 
 it, but then she put on a pea jacket and 
 clogs, and that makes a difference. 
 
60 Studies in Rat Catching. [CH. in. 
 
 This is a tiring long story to write, and I 
 have not quite done it yet, for I must finish 
 with the sand-pit man. He was tried, con- 
 victed and got three years. A year after he 
 had been in prison he tried to escape by getting 
 over a high wall, but in doing so he fell 
 from the top and broke his back. He 
 lingered some days and seemed to find a 
 pleasure in telling the prison parson of all 
 his misdeeds and in boasting of them. 
 There was a long list, but only the last part 
 of his story will serve for " the use of schools." 
 It appears from what he said that, after he 
 had given me the dog, he had intended to 
 steal back to his house and take the two 
 children to a deep pond and there drown 
 them. Then, free from family ties, he hoped 
 to get away and ship himself off to America. 
 He also said that in a fit of rage he had 
 thrashed his wife to death with his fists, and 
 that his boy from having seen him do it had 
 
CH. in.] End of an Ugly Story. 61 
 
 gone mad with fear, and was so bad, especially 
 at night, that if he had not got a bulldog 
 sleeping with him as a sort of friend, he 
 would go into a fit with fear and was often 
 unconscious for hours. 
 
 It was an ugly story, and I am glad to say 
 with the death of the sand-pit man the 
 miserable part of the children's life ended. 
 The girl is now twelve years ^old and has 
 never left us. She is as sharp as a needle 
 and as honest as old Chance and as good. 
 She is having a good education, thanks to 
 our Rector's wife, and could if need be earn 
 her own livelihood, but we are not going 
 ever to part with her. 
 
 The boy Jack was a great trouble to us at 
 first. For months he would not be parted 
 for a moment, day or night, from Grindum, 
 and the dog actually had to go to school with 
 him ; but the master utterly failed to teach 
 the boy even as far as A B C in his alpha- 
 
62 Studies in Rat Catching. [CH. in. 
 
 bet, and the dog not to blink ; and so, one 
 fine day, I had both returned on my hands as 
 hopeless ignoramuses, I could not keep a 
 blinking dog at home in idleness, so I took 
 him with me ratting, and as Jack would not 
 be parted from the dog, he had to come too. 
 Everyone says the boy is " cracked." He is 
 queer, I will allow, but if you will find me a 
 better hand at rat-catching in all its branches, 
 I should like to look at him ; and besides, if 
 Jack is cracked, then I like cracked boys, for 
 I never came across one more obedient, more 
 truthful, or more steady, and I find him a 
 perfect treasure on the other side of the bank 
 at the bolt holes. 
 
 Jack never mentions the past, and I 
 should be inclined to think he had forgotten 
 it, only if he is parted from Grindum for a 
 short time he becomes wild looking about 
 the eyes again and restless. At such times 
 his sister, who mothers him much, will sit by 
 
CH. in.] Grindinris First Rat. 63 
 
 him and stroke his face softly, when he will 
 quickly recover himself. I don't know "vhat 
 will happen when Grindum "blinks his last," 
 but the boy begins to follow me about and 
 seems to cling to me, and by that time I hope 
 I shall be so well liked by him that I may 
 take Grindum's place. 
 
 Just two words more about Grindum and 
 I have done. One is that the first time 
 Grindum caught a rat, he picked it up by its 
 hind leg, and the rat made its teeth meet 
 through his nose. He softly put the rat 
 down and it escaped, and I made my sides 
 ache and greatly astonished all the other 
 dogs by laughing at this great soft beast as 
 he sat on his haunches licking the blood as it 
 trickled from his nose, and staring up into 
 the sky with a far-off vacant look, blinking 
 worse than ever. 
 
 The other word is this. Though Grindum 
 is a bull-dog with an awful " Crush your 
 
64 Studies in Rat Catching. [CH. in. 
 
 bones, tear your flesh " look, he is just the 
 gentlest-hearted beast out, and there is not 
 a puppy in the kennel, nor a child in the 
 village, who does not know this and impose 
 on him shamefully. Only last Sunday I had 
 to stop a small child of five from driving off 
 in a four-wheeled cart, using Grindum as a 
 horse. Once, and once only, Grindum 
 showed his temper. A big lout in the 
 village threw a stone at him. Grindum only 
 blinked, but Jack saw it and hit the lout, who 
 being twice Jack's size turned upon him and 
 knocked him down. In half a minute Grin- 
 dum's teeth had met three times in the lout's 
 calves and his trousers required reseating, 
 and in three-quarters of a minute Grindum 
 was sitting down with a bland expression of 
 countenance, blinking with both eyes at the 
 sky. 
 
 Now to continue my lesson on ratting 
 dogs. I have two others, Pepper and Wasp 
 
CH. in.] Pepper and Wasp. 65 
 
 one a badly bred spaniel, and the other a 
 terrier of doubtful parentage. They are both 
 nice cheerful young dogs that it is a pleasure 
 to see either at play or work, but they are 
 yet young and too apt to get excited and 
 wild. They will, when a rat is out of his 
 hole, in a hedge, dash up and down the 
 entire length of the field, making enormous 
 jumps in the air, during which time they 
 listen keenly for the rustle of the rat in the 
 grass ; and once, but only once, Pepper gave 
 a yap when so rushing about, but I spoke 
 to him so severely about this disgustingly 
 low habit that he has never done it again. 
 
 Wasp is specially good at water, and I 
 have taught him to come to me directly a 
 rat is bolted with a plunge into a pond, and 
 I carry her high up in my arms round the 
 pond, and when the rat approaches the side, 
 Wasp from her high vantage ground will 
 dive down upon it and have it in an instant. 
 
 F 
 
66 Studies in Rat Catching, [en. in. 
 
 Both dogs are quick killers and will, I am 
 sure, in time be perfect ; but as yet I do not 
 think myself justified in putting them into a 
 higher class with such dogs as Chance and 
 Tinker. 
 
 There ! that is all for to-day, young gentle- 
 men. Resume your Cicero, and, while you are 
 preparing it, I will go to my room and look 
 over the impositions I set you yesterday. It 
 is understood that for " look over imposi- 
 tions" we may read, " Smoke cavendish in a 
 short black pipe." 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 WHAT do you say, boys ? Shall we drop 
 this and have a day's outdoor practice ? To 
 tell the truth, I don't think much of book- 
 learning, especially if the book is written by 
 myself; but I do believe in practice. Come 
 along ! It is the middle of October just the 
 nicest time of the year and the very best for 
 ratting, for the vermin are yet out in the 
 hedges, fine and strong from feeding in the 
 corn, and with few young ones about. Come, 
 Jack, we'll get the ferrets first ; and off I go 
 with the boy to the hutch, while the dogs in 
 the kennel, having heard our steps and 
 perfectly understanding what is up, bark and 
 yap at the door, jump over each other, 
 tumble and topple about like mad fiends. 
 
 F 2 
 
68 Studies in Rat Catching. [CH. iv. 
 
 Before I get to the box I hear the ferrets 
 jumping up at the sides, and when I open the 
 lid half a dozen are out in a moment, and 
 these I bag as a reward for their activity. I 
 throw the others a rat to console them for 
 being left at home, and, giving the ferrets to 
 Jack, I strap on a big game bag, take up my 
 spade, return and let the dogs out, and off 
 we start. 
 
 Step out quick, Jack ; there are three miles 
 to go before we get to work, and it is 8 a.m. 
 and I expect a big day. Yes, Chance, old lady, 
 a fine day a perfect day a day to make both 
 the feet and the heart light and every human 
 sense rejoice. There has been just a little 
 frost in the night : you can see that by the 
 way the elms have spread a golden carpet 
 under their branches in the lane and by their 
 leaves that yet keep falling slowly one by one 
 in the fresh, but dead still, air, and by the 
 smell of the turnips, the fresh stubble and 
 
CH. iv.j An Autumn Walk. 69 
 
 the newly turned earth behind yonder plough. 
 The sun shines, cobwebs are floating through 
 the air and get twisted round one's head, and 
 far and near sounds such as a cart on the 
 high road, a sheep dog barking, a boy singing, 
 birds chirping, insects humming, the patter 
 of our own feet, and the whispering of the 
 brook under the bridge, all form part of a 
 chorus heaven-sent to gladden the heart of 
 man, I have heard tell, Chance, or I have 
 seen it in a book, or I have felt it myself, I 
 don't quite know which, that those who in 
 youth have had such a walk as this, and have 
 heard the music, smelt the perfumes and seen 
 the sights (that is if they were blessed with 
 eyes to see, ears to hear, and hearts to take 
 in), have never forgotten it. The memory 
 appears for a time to pass away amidst the 
 struggles of life, but it is never dead ; to the 
 soldier in battle, to the statesman in council, 
 or the priest in prayers, to those in sorrow or 
 
70 Studies in Rat Catching, [en. iv. 
 
 in joy or in sickness, there may come, no one 
 knows from where, no one knows why, a 
 golden memory of such days, of such a walk. 
 Perhaps it is only a gleam resting but a 
 second upon the mind, and perhaps leaving it 
 saddened with a longing for days that are 
 past, but yet I think making one feel a better 
 man, giving one courage and hope, reminding 
 one that, hard as the battle of life may be to 
 fight, dark and gloomy as the days may be 
 just now, another morning may arise for us, 
 far, far more bright and glorious and joyful, 
 one that will not be shadowed over by a 
 returning night ; but then that is only for the 
 brave, the honest, the truthful for those who 
 are up early and strive late, never beaten, 
 never doubting, always pressing forward. 
 
 But, come out of that, Wasp ! Don't you 
 know that cows kick if you sniff at their 
 heels ? Tinker, old man, keep your spirits 
 up ; Pepper, come back from that wood, for it 
 
CH. iv.] " Steady, Dogs, Steady / " 71 
 
 is preserved. Yes, Jack, I think I'll fill my 
 pipe again. Baccy does taste good on a day 
 like this ; but what doesn't ? I feel like a ten- 
 year-old and as fit as a fiddler. Grindum, 
 give over blinking and don't look so benevo- 
 lent. No, Chance, no, old lady, I can't pull 
 your tail, for you haven't got one. What, 
 Jack, you say I haven't spoken for the past 
 mile ? Well, I suppose I have been thinking, 
 and my thoughts have not been wholly sad 
 ones. Open the gate ; here we are ; and you 
 get over on the other side of the hedge and 
 don't talk or make a noise, for I can see by 
 the work the rats s-w-a-r-rn. Steady, dogs, 
 steady ! And so we start. 
 
 The hedge is just what it should be, and if 
 it had been made for ratting it could not be 
 better. A round bank of soft earth, a shallow 
 ditch with grass, little bush or bramble, and 
 a gap every few yards. There is a gateway 
 in the middle, which will make a hot corner 
 
72 St 2t dies in Rat Catching. [en. iv. 
 
 later on when Grindum has taken his stand 
 there ; and there is a pipe under the gateway, 
 the far end of which I shall close. The rats 
 have never been disturbed, for the runs are as 
 fresh as Oxford Street, and I have already 
 seen one or two rats run into the hedge lower 
 down from out the wheat stubble, and, there ! 
 that whistle has sent a lot more in. Steady, 
 Wasp! Well done, Chance; you have marked 
 one in that hole near you, or more than one, 
 is there ? Well, the more the merrier ! Stand, 
 dogs, stand ! Are you ready, Jack ? And in 
 goes a ferret as lively as quicksilver and as 
 fierce as a tiger. 
 
 For a minute all is quiet ; then a slight stir 
 on the other side and two snaps of Tinker's 
 lantern-jaws, and two rats dead ; three 
 others out of a side hole are killed by Wasp, 
 and three others accounted for by Grindum, 
 and that fool Pepper is racing and jumping 
 down the hedge a mile off. Whistle ! 
 
CH. iv.] A Ferret Disabled. 73 
 
 whistle ! and back he comes, and at that 
 moment Jack picks up a ferret on the other 
 side, it having gone through the hole. 
 Chance sniffs at it and says it is swept clear, 
 and I block it up with my heel, and Jack 
 does the same to the bolt-hole, so that if a 
 rat does come back later on the dogs will 
 have a chance ; and then on we go a few 
 yards to the next hole which Chance marks. 
 This time the ferret went in like a lion and 
 came out like a lamb, with the blood running 
 out of the side of its face ; and whilst I am 
 examining the bite, a real patriarch rat bolted 
 at a side hole near Pepper, who strikes at it, 
 misses taking- a proper hold and gets it too 
 far back, and the next moment the blood is 
 pouring from a bite above his eye ; but the 
 rat is dead, and Pepper but little the worse. 
 
 I thought it was too late in the year for 
 young ones, but it was not, for at the next 
 hole we came to the ferret got into a nes h , 
 
74 Studies in Rat Catching. [CH. iv. 
 
 killed a lot of young ones and " laid up," and, 
 as I had not a box-trap with me, I had to 
 dig it out. This took some time, as I lost 
 the hole, and Jack, whilst down grubbing 
 with his hands, broke into a wrong one in 
 which the old rat was ready for him, and at 
 once bit him through the end of his finger. 
 Jack sucked it well and did not mind, but I 
 did not much like the appearance of things, 
 for in half-an-hour I had had a ferret laid 
 up, and a dog and a boy bitten badly by rats, 
 and these bites are often very poisonous. 
 Fortunately this time Jack took no harm and 
 was soon well. As soon as Jack pulled his 
 hand out of the rat's hole, Pincher put his 
 long nose in, and all was over in a minute. 
 Soon after I came on the ferret curled up in 
 a nest of young rats, all minus their heads ; 
 and so that ferret, from being gorged with 
 food, was no more good for work, and had 
 to be put away with the bitten one. 
 
CH. iv.] Rats up a Pollard. 75 
 
 After this we got on much faster ; the 
 holes were close together, and even with the 
 greatest care lots of rats bolted and went 
 forward, but I would not allow the dogs to 
 disturb fresh ground by following them. 
 Some went back, and Pepper and Wasp had 
 a good time, for I let them follow and work 
 them alone, having stopped all back holes 
 after ferreting them. Now and then, Jack 
 and I had to go back, as there was an old 
 pollard tree covered with ivy, and many of 
 the rats got up that, and Pincher had to be 
 lifted up into the crown to displace them, 
 and then when they jumped down, three 
 or four at a time, there was a grand 
 scrimmage. 
 
 When we had got twenty yards or so from 
 the gateway, Grindum went forward and 
 stood there and killed a dozen rats that tried 
 to pass, and a lot more went into the pipe 
 under the roadway. These we left alone, 
 
76 Studies in Rat Catching, [en. iv. 
 
 only after we had passed we stopped up the 
 open end and opened the shut one, so that in 
 future rats going- back might wait quietly in 
 the arch till we were ready for them. By 
 the time we had got as far as the gate it was 
 just noon, so we called the dogs back to a 
 tree we had passed, and then Jack and I sat 
 down and paid attention to the game bag, 
 which was well provided with cold meat 
 and bread and cheese and a bottle of beer. 
 
 I am not a good hand at picnics and never 
 was. I mean those big gatherings with 
 ladies, lobster salad, hot dishes, plates, 
 knives, spoons, champagne, etc. I find the 
 round world was created a little too low 
 down to sit upon with comfort; my knees 
 don't make a good table ; flies get into my 
 beer and hopping things into my plate. I 
 have to get up and hand eatables about ; 
 things bite me, and more creep about me, 
 and it does not look well to scratch. The 
 
CH. iv.] A Rat-catcher s Picnic. 77 
 
 hostess looks anxious about her glass and 
 plate ; someone has forgotten the salt, and 
 some one else the corkscrew. The host, be 
 he ever so sad, makes fun, and made fun is 
 magnified misery to me. No, I don't like 
 picnics ; I would rather be at home and feed 
 upon a table ; and yet a snack at noon-day, 
 after hard work, sitting under a tree, with 
 your hands as plates, with a good " shut- 
 knife," a silent companion and the dogs all 
 round you, is pleasant. Double Gloucester 
 then equals Stilton, and bottled beer nectar ; 
 and then the pipe in quiet, while Jack takes 
 the dogs, after they have finished the scraps, 
 to the pond to drink. Talk of Havanas ! 
 Well, talk of them, but give me that pipe as I 
 loll, half asleep, resting against the tree, my 
 legs spread out, and my hat tipped over my 
 nose. I half close my eyes and go nearly to 
 sleep, but keep pulling at the pipe, and half 
 unconsciously hear the leaves whispering 
 
78 Studies in Rat Catching. [CH. iv. 
 
 above, the insects humming, the stubble 
 rustling, the trembling of a thrashing 
 machine, and the rush of a train in the far 
 distance. Jack returns from the pond, 
 throws himself on the ground on his face, 
 kicks his legs in the air and whistles softly, 
 with the gentle Grindum blinking beside 
 him. Chance and Tinker lie out full length 
 on their sides and go to sleep. Wasp 
 stretches on the ground, with her legs out 
 behind her, and drags herself about with her 
 front feet. Pepper sits down, scratches his 
 ear, and then dashes at a passing bumble bee, 
 and all becomes a pleasant jumble of sights 
 and sounds ; but, with a start, I recover my- 
 self, drop my pipe, topple my hat off and lose 
 my temper, for that everlastingly restless, 
 volatile, good-for-nothing, ramshackly beast, 
 Pepper, has been and licked me all up the 
 side of the face ! The dream, the quiet, the 
 rest is all broken, so, jumping up, I tip my 
 
CH. iv.] Starting Rats from a Drain. 79 
 
 pipe out on the heel of my boot, give a 
 stretch, grasp the spade, and off we go to 
 finish our job. 
 
 For three hours we work our way on, and 
 a line of dead rats on the headland marks 
 our progress, till at last we reach the bottom 
 of the field and our bank is done. Pepper 
 has got three more bites, another ferret is 
 done for by a nip on the nose, and Jack has 
 torn his trousers and is very dirty ; but there 
 is yet the drain pipe under the gate to attend 
 to, and it is getting on in the day. I cut 
 three or four long sticks and tie them tightly 
 together, and then to the end of this fasten 
 a good hard bunch of grass, and back we go 
 to the drain. I go to one end with Grindum 
 and Pincher, whilst Jack takes the sticks, 
 Pepper and Wasp to the other end, and 
 gently and slowly shoves the sticks through. 
 Two venturesome rats bolt at my end and 
 are killed. When the sticks appear I grasp 
 
8o Studies in Rat Catching, [en. iv. 
 
 them and gradually draw the whisp of grass 
 into the drain. It fits tight and takes some 
 pulling, but it comes steadily along, wiping 
 all before it. Faster and faster the rats bolt 
 and are killed, and even old Chance, who 
 began by watching us, gets excited and joins 
 the sport. Pepper and Wasp dash in for a 
 last worry, which is over in a few minutes, 
 when twenty-four rats are cast by Jack up on 
 to the bank. Well done, dogs ! well done, 
 good dogs ! Woo-hoop, woo-hoop ! Good 
 dogs ! That's the way, my boys ! Woo- 
 hoop ! woo-hoop ! And the dogs roll on the 
 ground, stretch, wipe the dirt out of their 
 eyes with their paws, and rub their faces in 
 the grass. 
 
 Jack goes backwards and forwards and 
 collects the spoil, and we count up seventy- 
 three real beauties, a few of which I really 
 think should be fotirpenny beasts, they are 
 so big. Never mind, seventy-three rats at 
 
CH. iv.] A Weary Walk Home. St 
 
 twopence each comes to twelve and two- 
 pence not such a bad day's work ; and, Jack, 
 you shall have a hot supper to-night ; and oh, 
 you dogs, you dogs, think of the supper I 
 will give you ! Bones with lots of meat on, 
 oatmeal and such soup ! Think of it, dogs ! 
 think of it ! And so the work ends, and all 
 are happy and contented. 
 
 Three miles down turning twisting lanes 
 to reach home, Grindum and I first, then 
 Jack, and the rear brought up by the long 
 and now a little drooping tail of Tinker. 
 All have had enough ; even the volatile 
 young Pepper trots slowly, and therefore 
 looks ever so much more business-like. 
 
 Before we start the shades are falling, and 
 as we trudge along nature's evening vespers 
 speak of the closing day. Workmen sitting 
 sideways on quiet harnessed cart-horses stump 
 past with a friendly " Good night, neighbour, 
 good night ! " Women with children in "go- 
 
 G 
 
82 Studies in Rat Catching. [CH. iv. 
 
 carts" bustle past in a hurry to get home 
 and fetch up the supper. Farm horses are 
 drinking in the pond or browsing on the rank 
 grass at the side ; sparrows are chattering in 
 the old alder bush before going to bed in the 
 ivy on the church ; pigs in the homestead 
 are calling for their supper ; the cows pass us 
 coming home to be milked ; rooks fly steadily 
 to the old elm trees near the Manor ; and a 
 robin pipes clear and shrill on the roof of the 
 shed in the cottage garden. There are par- 
 tridges calling out " cheap wheat " in the 
 stubble, and pewits crying on the meadows. 
 Cock pheasants noisily flutter up to roost in 
 the firs, and the old doctor standing at his 
 door makes soft music with his violin. 
 
 The parson joins us and has a cheery 
 word for all, especially the dogs, who are all 
 his personal friends ; and so we jog on and 
 reach the village, where the wood smoke 
 rises straight in a blue cloud from the cottage 
 
CH. iv.] Kennel, Dogs, Kennel! 83 
 
 chimneys, and the fire light sends a ruddy 
 gleam across the roads. Groups of men and 
 boys stand about resting, little children race 
 and play, and oh, such a delicious whiff of 
 something stewing, with a little bit of onion 
 in it, comes from the open door of the village 
 ale-house ! And this reminds us all that our 
 suppers are near, and we finish the evening's 
 walk quite briskly. 
 
 No need to say, " Kennel, dogs, kennel ! " 
 All go in of their own accord, and in five 
 minutes are busy at their savoury-smelling 
 hot supper. The ferrets are fed and locked 
 up, and then, unlacing our boots at the back 
 door and kicking them off, the day is done. 
 Supper, rest and quiet, a pipe, a book, bed 
 and happy dreams are all before us. 
 
 " Now, Croker, minor, you will go to the 
 Doctor's study before school to-morrow. You 
 have been most inattentive, and it is not the 
 first time I have had occasion to speak to 
 
 G 2 
 
84 Studies in Rat Catching. [CH. iv. 
 
 you. You can go now, but don't forget that 
 this is tub night, as you all have done on the 
 last four occasions. If I have further com- 
 plaints on this head from the matron, I shall 
 take you all out for a long day's rat-catching, 
 so I advise you all to be very careful." Five 
 minutes later this master is smoking in his 
 room and says to another master who is 
 doing the same, " I say, Potts, do you knew 
 I think these new lessons on rat-catching are 
 all very well, but I think they are beyond 
 the capacity of schoolboys. Why, they strain 
 my mind, and I think they should only be 
 taken up at the universities and during the 
 last term ; and then the boys do so hate 
 them," etc. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 " CROKER, minor, have you been up to the 
 head-master ? Yes ? Then sit still and don't 
 fidget. Boys, pick up your books on rat- 
 catching, and we will resume yesterday's 
 task.' 1 
 
 The last chapter treats of a prime day's 
 rat-catching, where rats were numerous and 
 known to be numerous ; but don't suppose all 
 days are like this, for if you do you will be 
 sadly disappointed, and you will have a lot 
 to learn, for there are days, and very pleas- 
 ant days too, when you will have to walk 
 mile after mile to find a rat, and even then 
 not be successful ; but you will be out of 
 doors in the fresh air, with devoted com- 
 panions and something fresh to see at every 
 
86 Studies in Rat Catching. [en. v. 
 
 step, if you keep your eyes open. Don't get 
 disheartened, and above all things never say, 
 " Oh, it is no good looking here or looking 
 there for a rat ; there is sure not to be one. 
 Come on and don't waste time." You often 
 find them in the most unexpected places. 
 
 I once went three times to the house of 
 an old lady, being sent for because there was 
 a rat that came each night and took her 
 hen's eggs and carried off young ducks and 
 chickens. I spent hours looking for it in 
 hedges, ditches, sheds, out-houses and stable, 
 and even put Tinker up on the roof of all 
 the buildings, thinking the assassin might 
 be under the tiles ; but it was no go. 
 
 Night after night the plunderer came, and 
 I began to see that the old lady did not 
 think much of me. At last, one afternoon, 
 I called again and began operations by ask- 
 ing to have a dog that was tied up to a 
 kennel in a back yard led away, as his 
 
CH. v.] A Rat in a Queer Place. 87 
 
 barking disturbed my dogs. This was done, 
 and a minute afterwards Chance was sidling 
 round the kennel, staking her reputation 
 upon the rat being under it. I got out a 
 ferret and looked round the kennel, and was 
 utterly disgusted to find it was placed firmly 
 on hard ground without a vestige of a hole. 
 I am sorry to say I went so far as to sneer 
 at Chance and tell her she did not know the 
 difference between a dog and a rat. She 
 herself for a moment seemed in doubt, but 
 the next she went inside the kennel and 
 stood at a hole in the plank floor. I put the 
 ferret back in the bag and, taking hold of the 
 kennel, tilted it up, and in an instant the dogs 
 had a vicious-looking old monster dead. 
 
 Now the only possible way tha'. rat could 
 have got in and out of his house was by 
 passing the dog as he slept, and yet the old 
 lady and her gardener assured me that the 
 dog was as keen as mustard after rats. 
 
88 Studies in Rat Catching. [en. v. 
 
 I once killed a rat inside a church. I 
 found it during a long sermon, but for the 
 life of me I can't remember what that sermon 
 was about. I was sitting in a seat opposite 
 about a score of village school children, and 
 suddenly I was struck by their appearance, 
 and the thought passed through my mind, 
 " How like humans are to dogs ! Why, those 
 children look just like my dogs when they 
 find a rat, especially that flaxen-haired girl 
 with a front tooth out." Then I noticed that 
 they were all looking in one direction, and so 
 I looked there too and saw a rat sitting with 
 just its nose out of a hole which ran under 
 the brick floor, apparently listening to the 
 sermon. The next morning the parson and 
 I went to the church. I took one ferret and 
 only Tinker. I chose Tinker because he 
 was black and rather clerical looking. The 
 rat was at home, and we had it in five 
 minutes. This was one of the few times I 
 
CH. v.] Rats in a Ladys Chamber. 89 
 
 ever did rat-catching with my hat off, and it 
 felt very queer. 
 
 Again, I once killed a mother rat and a 
 lot of young ones which I found in the 
 stuffing of a spring sofa in a spare bedroom 
 at an old manor-house. There were rats in 
 the walls, and " Mary Ann " had often seen 
 a rat in the room when she went in to dust, 
 and it had given her "such a turn. 1 ' This 
 time I took all the dogs with me, and we 
 were followed by the lady of the house, four 
 dreadfully pretty daughters and " Mary 
 Ann." Madam and Mary Ann got on the 
 sofa, standing, and the four daughters stood 
 on four chairs round the room. All six 
 clasped their clothes tight round their ankles 
 why, I never could think. This was the 
 only time in her life that I ever found Chance 
 a fool. Directly she got into the room, she 
 wriggled and twisted, turned her head this 
 way and that, threw herself on her back and 
 
90 Studies in Rat Catching. [CH. v. 
 
 fairly grovelled. Wasp, Pepper, and the 
 long-tailed Tinker were nearly as bad, and it 
 was plain to see they were shy and bashful 
 in such a gorgeous room and surrounded by 
 such a galaxy of beauty. It was the soft- 
 hearted Grindum who saved us ; he blinked 
 much, but directly I said, " Hie round, dogs ! 
 Hunt him up ! Search him out ! " he went 
 to work up on the bed, round the room, 
 behind the furniture, and at last began 
 sniffing round the sofa. I got hot all over, 
 for I thought he was mistaking an aristo- 
 cratic lady and her hand-maid for rats ; but 
 no, at last he went under the sofa, and 
 turning over on his back began to scratch at 
 the underside of it up above him. Madam 
 and Mary Ann jumped off, and the latter felt 
 another "turn"; then both took refuge on 
 chairs and again clasped their clothes tight 
 round them. I turned the sofa up on its 
 back, and there through the sacking near a 
 
CH. v.] Rats in a House. 91 
 
 leg I found a nice round hole into the 
 interior among the springs. I put a ferret 
 in, and in a minute there was a rush and 
 scuffle, the sofa seemed alive, and then three 
 or four small rats bolted out and were 
 accounted for ; another squeak and rush, and 
 out came the mother and was quickly 
 dispatched ; then, as the ferret did not come 
 out, I ripped the sacking and found it eating 
 a deliciously tender young rat. I bagged 
 the ferret, and while I did so, Grindum killed 
 three or four small ones. I afterwards found 
 that the rats had eaten through the wain- 
 scot and so got into the room. The rest of 
 the afternoon was spent in turning over all 
 sorts of furniture, including beds, and hunting 
 through each room with the dogs ; but we 
 found no more rats as inside lodgers. 
 
 Three or four months after this episode, 
 rats swarmed in the walls of this same house 
 and behind the wainscoting, and my pro- 
 
92 Studies in Rat Catching. [CH. v. 
 
 fessional services were called in to get rid of 
 them. How they got into the house I never 
 discovered, for there were no holes from the 
 outside, and no creepers on the walls for 
 them to mount by and get on to the roof ; 
 the drains did not appear to communicate 
 with the inside of the house, and all the 
 doors fitted tight. Equally puzzling was it, 
 now that they were inside, to get them out, 
 for I dare not put ferrets in, for fear they 
 should kill a rat and leave it to decay and 
 smell for months. 
 
 I tried various plans. I got a live rat, 
 tied a ferret's bell on it, and turned it loose, 
 and for days after it was constantly heard 
 tinkling inside the walls ; but it did not drive 
 the rats away. I singed the coat of a rat, 
 put tar on the feet of another and turned 
 them loose ; but it was no good. At last I 
 took possession of a wood-house in a cellar 
 down in the basement, from which a short 
 
en. v.] Slaughter in a Cellar. 93 
 
 passage led to other cellars, and in the walls 
 of these there were many open holes. First of 
 all I went carefully over the wood cellar and 
 made sure there were no holes in it ; and 
 then, putting in a few faggots to give shelter 
 to any nervous young rat, I started each 
 night to feed them with delicious balls of 
 barley-meal, which were made up with scraps. 
 In this way I gave a rats' supper-party each 
 night for three weeks, and each morning I 
 found clean-swept dishes. At last the fatal 
 day arrived. A string was tied to the 
 handle of the door leading up into the 
 kitchen, the food was placed in the dishes as 
 usual about ten p.m., and all the household, 
 except myself, went to bed. I sat over the 
 kitchen fire reading my paper till a distant 
 clock struck midnight, and then I gave a 
 sharp pull to the string and heard the door 
 bang to and the fastening fall, and I knew I 
 had them. I lit a big glass lantern, went 
 
94 Studies in Rat Catching. [CH. v. 
 
 round to the stables and let out all the dogs, 
 took them to the cellar window and slipt 
 them through quickly, squeezing myself 
 through after them and shutting the window 
 again. In half no time fifty rats were killed, 
 and all the dogs, except Tinker, pretty badly 
 bitten ; but they were used to that and did 
 not care. Then I locked the back door 
 behind me, taking the key home to bring 
 back in the morning when I called to be 
 paid eight and fourpence for my night's 
 work. Three times in the next three 
 months I went through a similar perform- 
 ance, and the first time I killed twenty- 
 eight rats, the second seven, and the third 
 time only two, and these were old bachelors. 
 Then every hole in the walls was filled up 
 with a cement made up with broken glass, 
 and I have never heard of a rat in that 
 house since. 
 
 Before I forget it, let me tell you that if a 
 
CH. v.] Dead Rats in a House. 95 
 
 rat dies in the wall, or under the floor of a 
 house where it can't be got at, its where- 
 abouts can be discovered in this way, pro- 
 vided the weather is warm. Take a butterfly 
 net over to the butcher's shop, and there 
 catch a dozen bluebottle flies, and, taking 
 care not to hurt them, slip them into a glass 
 jar and tie a rag over it. Return to the 
 room where the smell is, and, shutting the 
 door after you, let your pack of flies loose 
 and sit down to watch them, and in half-an- 
 hour you will find they are all buzzing round 
 one spot. Have this spot opened out, be it 
 wall or floor, and there the dead rat will be 
 found. Has the bell rung? Yes, half a 
 minute ! Put your books away, form two and 
 two outside, and I will take you for our 
 usual walk. We will resume this task in the 
 morning. Croker, minor, the top part of 
 Jones' leg was not made to stick pins into. 
 If I see you do it again, I shall give you a 
 rat to catch, so be careful ! 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 I TRUST that, in the five chapters I have 
 written, I have said enough to give some 
 of my scholars a slight taste and liking for 
 the profession I am advocating, and in some 
 small degree have weaned their young 
 affections from such pernicious pastimes as 
 studying classical authors, doing sums, and 
 cutting their names on their desks. If I 
 have not done this I have written to little 
 purpose, and I fear the next chapter will 
 damp off a few who have only followed me 
 and my dogs on fine days in pleasant paths ; 
 but I may as well tell you at once that life is 
 no more all beer and skittles in rat-catching 
 than it is in such minor professions as the 
 Army, the Church, the Bar, school-keeping, 
 
CH. yi.] A November Day. 97 
 
 etc.; and just to see if you are "real grit," 
 boys, I will show you another picture. 
 
 Jack, get the ferrets while I let the dogs 
 out. We must go and see if we can find a 
 few rats, for it is a week since the ferrets had 
 flesh, and we shall have them getting ill ; 
 and, Jack, bring four in the little bag, and 
 put that inside your game-bag, for it looks 
 like rain, and I don't like to see them half- 
 drowned. Yes, it does look like rain, though 
 as yet it is only a dull, misty, chilly day in 
 mid-November down here in the country, 
 but in London it is a thick black fog, and all 
 work is being done by gaslight. It is bad 
 and depressing here, but ever so much worse 
 there ; so cheer up, dogs, and step out, Jack. 
 We will go down by the beck and home by 
 the clay-pits, for I know of no other place 
 near where we are so likely to find a few rats, 
 and I don't want to make a long day of it. 
 
 Go over the bridge, Jack. You take that 
 
 H 
 
98 Studies in Rat Catching. [CH. vi. 
 
 side with Chance and a young one, and I 
 will do this side with the other dogs. Hie 
 in, dogs ! Search him out, lads ! And on 
 we go, but in two miles we only kill a water- 
 hen that Pepper catches as it rises out of 
 some sedges, and which goes into my bag 
 to replenish the ferrets' larder. The mist 
 hangs low, the bushes are wet, the ground 
 soft, and there is a dreary sigh in the wind. 
 The cattle are eating fast, as they always do 
 before rain ; and the sheep, startled by the 
 sight of the dogs, caper and jump as they 
 gallop all down the meadow ; and again their 
 playfulness warns me of a wet tramp home. 
 Some young colts stand at the door of an 
 open shed, dull and depressed looking, and 
 the horses ploughing on the sides of the hill 
 send up a thick steam. No birds twitter or 
 sing, no insects hum, distant sounds are 
 muffled and indistinct. The teams in the 
 waggons on the road hard by creep along 
 
CH. vi.] A Laid-up Ferret. 99 
 
 and take little notice beyond a toss of the 
 head at the carter's whip as he walks beside 
 them with a heavy step cracking it. The 
 only brisk thing to be seen is the doctor's 
 gig as it whisks past. 
 
 " Hie up, dogs ! shake yourselves and don't 
 go to sleep ! Come over, Jack ; I have had 
 enough of this brook ; and if we don't find at 
 the clay-pits, home we go." And we trudge 
 off to some ponds half a mile further away. 
 They are well-known to both men and dogs, 
 and the latter bolt on ahead and arrive first ; 
 and when we come up we find them all 
 clustered round a hole in a high bank 'midst 
 thick dripping bushes. In goes a ferret, but 
 not in the way I like to see. There is no 
 hurry, no ecstatic wriggle of the tail as it 
 slowly draws itself into the hole. Then all 
 stand round expecting to see a rat take a 
 header into the pond ; but no, five minutes 
 pass, and Pepper begins to move, and is told 
 
 H 2 
 
ioo Studies in Rat Catching, [en. vi. 
 
 to " stand." Ten minutes pass, and Jack 
 gets restless. Fifteen minutes, and I begin 
 to shift my feet, which are planted deep in 
 sticky mud by the side of the pond, and just 
 then the first drops of rain appear. Ah, 
 there is the ferret ! Jump up and get it, Jack. 
 But before he can do so, it has drawn itself 
 into the hole backwards, which means that it 
 has killed a rat inside and that it only came 
 out to tell us so, and that it was going back 
 to have a good long sound sleep curled up 
 by the rat's warm body. There is nothing 
 for it but to dig it out ; and oh, what a dig, 
 all among roots and thorns on the sloping 
 sides of the pond, in thick sticky clay, with 
 the rain coming down in a steady pour ! 
 Jack hunches his back and leans against a 
 tree, Pepper and Wasp wander away down 
 a ditch and scratch for an hour at a drain 
 that has a rabbit in it, and the old dogs sit 
 and watch me and drip and shiver. I dig 
 
en. vi.] A Tramp Home in the Wet. 101 
 
 here, I dig there ; I slip and fall on the bank ; 
 the water mixed with yellow clay runs up my 
 arm from the spade, and yet that beastly 
 ferret sleeps peacefully in its warm bed. I 
 lose the hole, come down on roots as thick 
 as my leg and stones that strike fire as the 
 spade strikes them ; and so two hours of dis- 
 comfort to all drift by, and I am just feeling 
 about for the last time with the spike end of 
 the spade, when I again hit off the hole and, 
 opening it out, come upon a nice warm rat's 
 nest made of leaves, with the ferret curled 
 up snugly with a dead rat. 
 
 " Home, dogs, home ! Cheer up, Jack ! Cold 
 are you, and wet ? Well, never mind ; only 
 two miles, and we will walk fast. Pepper, 
 Pepper, Wasp, Wasp, where on earth have 
 you got to ? Ah, there you are, and a nice 
 mess you have made of yourselves trying to 
 scratch out a hole five hundred yards long. 
 Come along all ! " And off we tramp, Jack 
 
IO2 Studies in Rat Catching. [CH. vi. 
 
 and I in the middle of the road, splish splash at 
 every step, the water squirting high up our 
 gaitered legs, and the dogs, with drooping tails, 
 dripping coats and woe-begone looks, coming 
 along behind us in Indian file close under the 
 shelter, such as it is, of the hedge. 
 
 We pass the postman, who only nods, and 
 meet a flock of sheep all draggled and dirty. 
 An empty cart with a sack over the seat 
 stands at the pot-house, and pigs wander 
 listlessly about the yard with their backs 
 arched up. Under the waggon-shed some 
 cocks and hens stand each on one leg, with 
 their tails drooping, apparently too disgusted 
 to prune their feathers and fly up to roost in 
 the rafters. The smoke beats down from 
 the chimneys and gets lost in the wind and 
 rain which buffets and pelts at our back. 
 Cold spots begin to be felt at the bend of 
 our arms and knees ; then a shiver runs down 
 the back, which developes into a trickle of 
 
CH. vi.] A Snug Evening. 103 
 
 water that at last gets into our boots and 
 goes squish, squish, at every step, and at last 
 oozes over the tops ; and our teeth chatter 
 with cold, for now here and there among the 
 rain-drops appear a few flakes of snow, which 
 rest on the mud of the road for a second, and 
 then melting, add to the deep slush that 
 trickles down the hill by our side. At every 
 open shed the dogs shelter a minute, shake 
 themselves like dripping mops, and with 
 arched backs stand on three legs and shiver ; 
 but we whistle them on and at last reach 
 home. After throwing a good bundle of dry 
 straw on the kennel benches and feeding 
 dogs and ferrets, Jack and I get under 
 shelter and soon find ourselves in dry clothes 
 before a good fire, feeling a little swollen 
 and stiff about our faces and hands, and 
 much inclined for forty winks. 
 
 The wind howls in the chimney, lashes 
 the bare branches of the trees, rattles the 
 
IO4 Studies in Rat Catching, [en. vi. 
 
 window frames, and appears angry that it 
 cannot get at us, and the rain drives in fitful 
 gusts against the windows, and hisses in the 
 big wood fire on the hearth ; and as I sit in 
 my snug arm-chair, I dimly feel that the 
 external storm adds greatly to the internal 
 comfort, and then I fancy I nod off to sleep, 
 for I think no more till supper is announced, 
 and hunger and my wife stir me up to con- 
 sciousness again. 
 
 Having finished a good supper and got 
 my pipe drawing beautifully, I remember 
 one or two things that I think the student 
 should be told. The first is, never put a 
 line on a ferret when ratting. It hampers 
 a ferret in a narrow, twisting, turning rat's 
 hole, and cutting into the soft earth at the 
 turns soon brings the ferret to a dead stop. 
 Then rats' holes are chiefly in hedge-banks, 
 which are full of roots, and the line is pretty 
 sure to get twisted round some of these, and 
 
CH. vi.] Things Students Should Know. 105 
 
 then it will be a long dig to free it. Re- 
 member, too, a ferret has to go down the hole 
 and face a beast nearly as big as itself, with 
 teeth like lancets and with courage to use 
 them, and so should be as free as possible ; 
 and lining a ferret is about equal to setting 
 a student with the gloves on to fight against 
 another without them. Then some way back 
 I mentioned ferrets' bells. They are little 
 hollow brass balls with an iron shot in them 
 that make a pretty tinkling sound, and are 
 supposed to be tied round the ferret's neck. 
 In my opinion, if you put a bell on it, you 
 may as well put the ferret in the bag and 
 keep it there. The theory about bells is, 
 that a ferret running down a hole jingling its 
 bell will fill a rat with fear and make it bolt, 
 but this is all nonsense ; rats are not so 
 easily frightened. Again, it is said that if a 
 ferret comes out of a hole in a thick hedge 
 unseen, the bell will let you know where it 
 
io6 Studies in Rat Catching. [CH. vi. 
 
 is ; but I must say I never lost a ferret in a 
 hedge or felt the want of a belled one. I 
 consider a bell a useless dead weight on a 
 ferret, and the cord that goes round its neck 
 to fasten it is apt to get hitched on to a root 
 and hold the ferret a prisoner. A bell is 
 only good for a sharp shopman to sell to a 
 flat. 
 
 I need hardly say, never muzzle a ferret 
 when rat-catching. It would be brutal not 
 to let the ferret have the use of its teeth to 
 protect itself with. Muzzling ferrets apper- 
 tains solely to rabbiting, but it is useful to 
 know how to do it. Take a piece of twine 
 a foot long, double it, and tie a loop at the 
 double. Tie the string round the ferret's 
 neck, with the loop on the top ; bring the 
 two ends down under the chin and tie them 
 together there ; pass them over the nose and 
 tie them there, shutting the mouth tight ; 
 pass one string along the nose, between the 
 
CH. vi.] Muzzling Ferrets. 107 
 
 eyes, through the loop on the top of the 
 neck, and bending it back, tie it to the other 
 loose string from the knot on the top of the 
 nose. Cut the ends off, and, provided you 
 have not made a lot of "granny" knots, 
 your muzzle will keep on all day. There 
 are other ways of doing the trick, such as 
 passing the string behind the ferret's dog- 
 teeth, bring it under the jaw, then over the 
 nose, on the top of the neck ; tie it there and 
 again under the neck. I hate this plan, and 
 have seen a ferret's mouth badly cut by the 
 string. I have heard of another plan which 
 is too brutal to mention. Cut the muzzle off 
 directly you have done with it, for I don't 
 suppose a ferret likes having its mouth tied 
 up any more than you or I should. 
 
 Never wantonly hurt any animal, especially 
 those that work for you and suffer in your 
 service. Just think of the amount of pluck 
 a ferret shows each time you put it into a 
 
io8 Studies in Rai Catching, [en. vi. 
 
 rat's hole. Fancy yourself in its place, 
 going down a lot of dark crooked passages 
 that you don't know, only just wide enough 
 to allow you to pass, and have to face a beast 
 somewhat like yourself and as big, that you 
 know will attack you. Why, if ferrets got 
 V.C.'s, they would, on high days and holi- 
 days when they wished to display them all, 
 have to employ a string of sandwich-men 
 walking behind them with the boards covered 
 with V.C. Three or four times in my life I 
 have had ferrets die of the wounds they have 
 received from rats. I have had them in 
 hospital for weeks, and I have had them 
 blinded. Speaking of blind ferrets, I am not 
 much of an oculist, but I don't believe a 
 ferret can see in the dark. I never could 
 find any difference between the way my 
 blind ferret worked in a hole and that of one 
 with good eyes ; in fact, my blind ferret was 
 as good a little beast as ever killed a rat, 
 
CH. vi.] Sucking Blood. 109 
 
 and she did kill many a score after she lost 
 both eyes. I believe a ferret when in a 
 hole uses a sense we don't possess I 
 mean the sense of touch with the long nose 
 whiskers. 
 
 Some years ago the Field opened its 
 pages to a long discussion on the subject of 
 ferrets sucking the blood of their victims after 
 they have killed them. Writers pretending 
 to know all about it said they did do so. 
 These men are to be pitied, not laughed at, 
 for you see in the days of their youth " Rat- 
 catching for the Use of Schools" was not 
 written, and therefore they had not learnt 
 better. A ferret no more sucks the blood of 
 the things it kills than a dog does. If you 
 doubt this, give a fresh-killed rat to a ferret, 
 let it fasten on it, and then peep at the 
 corners of its mouth, and you will find an 
 opening there into the mouth, out of which 
 blood would flow if the ferret had it in its 
 
no Studies in Rat Catching. [CH. vi. 
 
 mouth ; and look down its throat, you will not 
 find blood in it, nor will there be blood on 
 the portion of the rat that has been held in 
 its mouth. No, people are misled by a 
 ferret sending its teeth deep home in the 
 flesh and making a sucking sound as it with 
 difficulty breathes through its nose and the 
 corners of its mouth. If you watch a ferret 
 after it has killed a rat, it will, as soon as it 
 is sure the rat is dead, begin chewing at the 
 skin of the head or throat till it has made an 
 entrance, and will then eat the flesh. 
 
 To finish this chapter, I will tell you a 
 story which you are never to put into prac- 
 tice. Some long time ago I found myself 
 far from home in a country village, and 
 having nothing to do, I went for a walk, and 
 soon came upon a brother professional rat- 
 catcher ; and thinking I mightjearn a wrinkle 
 from him that would come in useful, I joined 
 him and carefully watched him and his dogs. 
 
CH. vi.] A Strange Use for a Dogs Tail. 1 1 1 
 
 I saw at once that three of the latter were 
 very good and up to their work ; but there 
 was a fourth, a nondescript sort of beast with 
 a long tail, that appeared quite useless ; and 
 I observed with amusement that directly the 
 man put a ferret into a hole, the dog tucked 
 its tail tight between its legs and went and 
 stood well out in the field. I asked the man 
 why he kept such a useless beast, and with 
 a chuckle he answered, " Well, mate, I'll 
 own up he ain't much to boast on for rat- 
 killing, nor yet for looks, but he has his use 
 like some other of we h-ugly ones. You see, 
 sir, I've got one or two ferrets as won't come 
 out of a 'ole, but stand a peeping at the 
 h-entrance and waste a lot of time. Then 
 that 'ere dawg comes in useful. I catches 
 him, lifts him up, and sticks his bushy tail 
 down to the ferret, who catches tight hold, 
 and I draws it out. Nothing ain't made for 
 nothing, and I expect that dawg was made 
 
1 1 2 Studies in Rat Catching. [CH. vi. 
 
 for drawing ferrets." The man may have 
 been right, but I was quite sure the unfor- 
 tunate dog did not take an active pleasure 
 in his vocation. 
 
 There, young gentlemen, if you have well 
 digested that chapter and forgotten the story 
 at the end, you can put up your books and 
 form up for your usual walk to the second 
 milestone and back again ; but before leav- 
 ing, let me point out to you, Croker, minor, 
 that if that caricature I have observed you 
 drawing behind your book is meant for vie, 
 it is, like most things you do, incorrect ; my 
 nose is not so long, and I part my hair on 
 the left side, not the right. 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 RAT-CATCHING and rabbit-catching are two 
 distinct professions, but the greater part of 
 the stock-in-trade that serves for one will 
 answer for the other, and it is as well for the 
 professional to be master of what I think I 
 may call both branches of his business. A 
 rat-catcher who 'did nothing but kill rats and 
 refused a day's work with the rabbits would 
 be like a medical man who would cut off 
 limbs but would not give a pill, or a captain 
 of a sailing-vessel who would not go to sea 
 in a steamer ; besides in these days it is the 
 fashion to jumble up half a dozen businesses 
 under one head and name. Just look at 
 what the engineer does. Why, he is nowhere 
 if he is not (besides being ready, as the 
 
 i 
 
ii4 Studies in Rat Catching. [CH. vn. 
 
 engineer of the old school, to make railways, 
 etc.) a chemist, an electrician, a diplomat, a 
 lawyer, a financier and a contractor, and even 
 sometimes an honest man. If you are not 
 in the fashion you arc left behind as an old 
 fogey, and so in this chapter we will discuss 
 the art of rabbit-catching ; and I trust all 
 schoolmasters will furnish you, their students, 
 with the opportunity of putting in practice in 
 the field what you learn from this book at 
 your desks. 
 
 Well, now for the requirements. We have 
 got the dogs, we have got the ferrets, spade, 
 bag, etc. ; but for rabbiting we must have a 
 much more costly stock-in-trade if we are to 
 do a big business. We shall require an 
 ordinary gardener's spade for digging in soft 
 sandy ground, where the rabbit burrows 
 sometimes go in for yards, and as much as 
 ten feet deep down ; also another spade,, 
 longer in the blade than our ratting one, the 
 
CH. VIL] Rabbit Catching. 1 1 5 
 
 sides more turned in, and with a handle ten 
 feet long, with a steel hook at the end in- 
 stead of a spike. With this spade we can 
 sink down many feet after the hole is too 
 deep for the ordinary spade, and the turned 
 in sides will hold the soft earth and allow 
 you to bring it to the surface. If you dig 
 down on the top of a rabbit as you will do 
 when you know your work the hook at the 
 end will enable you to draw first it and then 
 the ferret up by the string. We must have 
 a piece of strong light supple cord, marked 
 by a piece of red cloth drawn through the 
 strands at every yard, so that one can tell 
 exactly how far in the ferret is ; and it is as 
 well to have a second shorter cord for work 
 in stiff heavy ground, where the holes are 
 never deep. Next, we must have two or 
 three dozen purse-nets, which are circular, 
 about two feet in diameter, with a string rove 
 round the outside mesh fastened to a peg. 
 
 I 2 
 
ii6 Studies in Rat Catching, [en. MI. 
 
 These are for covering over bolt holes to 
 bag a rabbit when driven out by the ferrets. 
 The nets should be made of the very best 
 string, so as to be as light and fine as possible. 
 The mesh should be just large enough to 
 allow a rabbit's head to pass through. 
 
 Like the postscript to a lady's letter, the 
 chief item I have saved till the last, and I 
 fear it will be some time before the ordinary 
 rabbit-catcher will be able to afford it. I 
 refer to long nets, which are used for running 
 round or across a piece of covert to catch 
 the rabbits as they are bustled about by the 
 dogs. A rabbit-catcher in full swing should 
 have from eight hundred to a thousand yards 
 of this, for with a good long net he will often 
 kill as many rabbits in a few hours as he 
 could do with the ferrets in a week. 
 
 I myself keep no special dog for rabbit- 
 catching, chiefly because I have a neighbour 
 who will always let me have a cunning old 
 
CH. vii.] An Easy Day. 117 
 
 lurcher that he keeps, which is as good as 
 gold, and as clever as a lawyer, and despe- 
 rately fond of a day with me and my dogs. 
 
 I have three male ferrets, real monsters, 
 strong enough to trot down a burrow and 
 drag five or six yards of line after them with 
 ease. 
 
 Having described all the tools, etc , neces- 
 sary for work, I will now jot down, as an 
 exercise for you students, a nice easy day's 
 rabbiting that actually took place a few 
 weeks ago a sort of day that quite a young 
 beginner might work with success. There 
 had been a, sharp rime frost in the night, 
 which still hung about in shady spots at 
 eight o'clock in the morning, as Jack and 
 I marched off with my dogs and ferrets, 
 accompanied by old Fly, the lurcher. By nine 
 a.m. we began working field hedge-rows 
 and banks, where rabbits were pretty plenti- 
 ful and had been established for years in 
 
1 1 8 Studies in Rat Catching. [CH. vn. 
 
 every description of burrow. There had 
 been a lot of partridge and other shooting 
 going on over this farm for the last month, 
 and most of the rabbits had got a dislike 
 to sitting out in the open, and were under 
 ground, so we began at the burrows at once, 
 the dogs driving every rabbit that was sit- 
 ting out in the hedge back to their burrows 
 as we walked along. We began work in a 
 stiff clay bank far too hard for the rabbits 
 to make deep holes in, and here we got on 
 fast. I took the ditch side in fact, I took 
 the ditch itself with a big ferret with a 
 short line on, and I ran it into each hole I 
 came to. Jack on the other side looked out 
 for the bolt holes, and always laid down a 
 little to one side, as much as possible out of 
 sight, but with a hand just on the bank over 
 the hole ready to catch a bolting rabbit. 
 Fly and the other dogs took charge of the 
 other holes, and all kept as quiet as possible. 
 
CH. vii.] Ferreting a Bank. 119 
 
 In went the ferret, slowly dragging the line 
 after him till I count two yards gone by the 
 red marks on the line ; then there is a halt 
 for half a minute, then a loud rumbling and 
 the line is pulled fast through my fingers. 
 Jack moves quickly, and the next instant a 
 rabbit is thrown a little way out into the 
 field with its neck broken. Jack says, " Ferret 
 out," then picks it up, draws the line through 
 the hole, passes the ferret over to me, and 
 we go on to the next, having filled up the 
 entrance of the hole we have just worked. 
 Hole after hole was ferreted much in the 
 same way. Sometimes Jack bagged the 
 bolting rabbit, sometimes the dogs, and now 
 and then one bolted and got into the hedge 
 before it could be caught and went back, but 
 it was little use, for the dogs with Fly at 
 their head were soon after it, and in a few 
 minutes Fly was sure to have it, and would 
 retrieve it back to Jack. 
 
I2O Studies in Rat Catching, [en. vn. 
 
 As we worked round a big field, we got 
 into softer ground, a red sand and soil mixed ; 
 and here the holes were much deeper and 
 often ran through the bank and out for yards 
 under ground into the next field. Here Jack 
 and I changed places, Jack doing the ferret- 
 ing, and I going to his side with the garden 
 spade. One, two, three, four, five yards the 
 ferret went and stopped, and all was quiet. 
 I listen, but not a sound. Jack pulls gently 
 on the line and finds it tight, and for a 
 minute we wait, hoping a rabbit may bolt 
 from the hole the ferret went in at. But no 
 such luck. I take the small ratting-spade, 
 and with the spike end feel into the ground 
 at the foot of the bank, and at once come 
 upon the hole ; this I open out and clear of 
 earth, and Jack, who has crept through the 
 hedge, kneels down and finds the line 
 passing this hole in the direction of the field 
 and going downwards. At that moment 
 
cir. VIL] A Deep Dig in the Sand. 121 
 
 there is a sound like very distant thunder, 
 and the line is pulled quickly four yards 
 further into the hole, and the marks show 
 six yards are in. I go about this distance 
 out into the field, lie down and place my ear 
 close to the ground. I shift about in all 
 directions listening intently, and at last hear 
 a faint thudding sound. I shift again a few 
 inches in this direction, and lose it ; in that, 
 and recover it ; again a few inches, and the 
 sound is directly under my head, but pretty 
 deep down. I take the big spade and open 
 out a hole a yard square, and dig down as 
 far as I can reach. I get into the hole and 
 sink deeper. I have to enlarge it a foot all 
 round to get room, and then I dig down 
 again till only my head appears above 
 ground when I stand up. Then I take the 
 long spade, and with that sink two more feet, 
 and plump I come on the top of the hole, 
 and the ferret shoves a sand- covered head 
 
122 Studies in Rat Catching, [en. vii. 
 
 up and looks at me. I reverse the long 
 spade and catch the line with the hook and 
 pull the ferret up, and then calling Jack, I 
 send him head first into the well-like pit, 
 holding on to one of his feet myself as I lie 
 flat on the ground to allow him to go deep 
 enough. In a minute a dead rabbit is taken 
 out and two live ones, whose necks Jack 
 breaks as he hangs suspended, and then I 
 pull him up with his plunder, and he rights 
 himself on the surface, very red in the face, 
 very sandy, spluttering and rubbing his eyes. 
 Then the ferret is swung down again by the 
 line, it goes a little way into the hole and 
 returns, and so we know we have made a 
 clean sweep. The big hole is filled up and 
 stamped down, and after filling a pipe and 
 resting a few minutes, on we go with our 
 work. 
 
 On the high sandy part of the field we 
 have several deep digs like the above, with 
 
CH. VIL] A Day with the Purse Nets. 123 
 
 varying success, and we rejoice when we 
 reach the last side of the field and get into 
 clay again, where holes are short and most 
 of the rabbits bolt at once. During all the 
 day we only stopped once for half-an-hour to 
 get a snack of bread and cheese, and by the 
 time the cock partridges began to call their 
 families together for roost, and the teams in 
 the next field to knock off ploughing, we are 
 all, man, boy, dogs and ferrets, fairly tired, 
 and are glad to tumble seventeen couple of 
 rabbits into the keeper's cart that has been 
 sent out for them, and trudge off home 
 ourselves. 
 
 Now for another day's sport that was 
 quite different. No dogs with us, only a bag 
 of ready-muzzled ferrets, a bundle of purse 
 nets and a spade Success will depend on 
 perfect quiet, and even the patter of the 
 dogs' feet would spoil our sport, so they are 
 at home for once, and Jack and I are alone. 
 
124 Studies in Rat Catching. [CH. vn. 
 
 It is one of those soft mild dull days that 
 now and then appear in mid-winter, a sort of 
 day to gladden the heart of foxhunters and 
 doctors, and to make wiseacres shake their 
 heads and say " most unseasonable." It is a 
 good day for Jack and me, and we feel 
 confident as we steal into a plantation of tall 
 spruce firs, placed so thick on the ground 
 that beneath them is perpetual twilight, and 
 not a blade of grass or bramble to hide the 
 thick carpet of needle points. Softly we 
 creep forward to a lot of burrows we know 
 of in the corner of the wood, and then I go 
 forward alone and spread a net loosely over 
 every hole, firmly pegging it down by the 
 cord. This done I stand quietly down-wind 
 of the holes, and Jack comes and slips the 
 six ferrets all into different holes, and then 
 crouches down on his knees. All is quiet ; 
 only the whisperings of the tree-tops, the 
 occasional chirp of a bird, or the rustle of a 
 
CH. VIL] Necessity of Silence. 125 
 
 mouse in the dead leaves. Five minutes 
 pass, and then out dashes a rabbit into a 
 net, which draws up round it. Jack moves 
 forward on tip-toe, kills the rabbit and takes 
 it out of the net, and covers the hole again. 
 While he is doing this, three more rabbits 
 have bolted and got netted, one has escaped, 
 and a ferret has come out. The captured 
 ones are killed, the ferret sent into another 
 hole, and for an hour this work goes on, and 
 during all the time neither of us have spoken, 
 for we know there is nothing that scares 
 wild animals more than the human voice, 
 unless it is the jingle of metals, such as a 
 bunch of keys rattling. They dread the 
 human voice because they have had too 
 much experience of it, and the rattle of 
 metal because they have not had experience 
 enough of it, for it is a sound they have 
 never heard, and nothing like, in the quiet 
 woods and fields. On the other hand, 
 
126 Studies in Rat Catching, [en. VH. 
 
 animals pay but little attention to a whistle, 
 for in one shape or another they are con- 
 stantly hearing it from their feathered com- 
 panions. 
 
 But to go back to our netting. An hour 
 over, we pick up the ferrets as they come 
 out and bag them, and then I go off to some 
 fresh holes and spread the nets again, and we 
 repeat the same performance ; and during the 
 day we kill, without any digging or hard 
 work, about twenty-two couple of rabbits. 
 In the above account I have written of a 
 day's sport that took place in a fir plantation 
 in a little village in Norfolk, where it would 
 have been madness to work the ferrets 
 without muzzling them, for they would have 
 been sure to kill some rabbits in the holes 
 and then have laid up ; but I should mention 
 that I have killed many rabbits in the same 
 way on the Cotswold Hills in Gloucestershire, 
 and I was much astonished when I first got 
 
CH. VIL] Ferrets without Muzzles. 127 
 
 there to find men who thoroughly under- 
 stood their business working their ferrets 
 under nets without muzzling them. I 
 adopted the plan myself, and have rarely 
 had a ferret kill a rabbit underground. For 
 some reason that I could never find out, 
 a Cotswold rabbit will always bolt from a 
 hole with a ferret in if it can. It is well 
 known in Norfolk that if a rabbit is run 
 into a hole by dogs, you may ferret it if you 
 like, but it will never bolt, and it must be dug 
 out. But in Gloucestershire I have seen 
 the same rabbit bolt out of a hole, get shot 
 at, be run by dogs, go to ground, and again 
 bolt at once from a ferret. Few profes- 
 sionals ever use a line on a ferret on the 
 Cotswold, one reason being that the burrows 
 are nearly all in rocky ground, and there 
 would be danger of the line being caught in 
 the numerous cracks ; besides it is not re- 
 quired, for a rabbit there is sure to bolt, and 
 
128 Studies in Rat Catching, [en. vn. 
 
 for this reason it is twice as easy to kill 
 rabbits in Gloucestershire as it is in Norfolk, 
 especially in the sandy or soft soil of the 
 latter county. 
 
 Let me here beg of all my readers, espe- 
 cially students, never to keep a poor rabbit 
 alive in their hands a second. I don't 
 suppose any who read this book could be so 
 unsportsmanlike and brutal as to keep a 
 rabbit alive to course and torture over again 
 with dogs, or for the fun of shooting at the 
 poor little beast. Such ruffians should never 
 be allowed a day's sport on a gentleman s 
 property. They are only fit to go out mole- 
 catching. No, directly you have a live 
 rabbit in your hand, take it by its hind legs 
 with your right hand, and the head with your 
 left, with two fingers under its face ; with 
 these fingers turn the head back, and give 
 the rabbit a smart quick stretch, and in an 
 instant all its sufferings are over. Never hit; 
 
CH. VIL] How to Kill Rabbits. 129 
 
 it with your hand or a stick behind the ears : 
 first, because you are not quite sure to kill it 
 with the first blow ; and secondly, if you do, 
 half the blood in the rabbit will settle in a 
 great bruise at the spot where it was struck, 
 and make that portion unfit for table. 
 
 That is sufficient for this morning, and you 
 may now turn to a little lighter work with 
 some algebra. 
 
( 130 ) 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 FORTUNATELY I don't live by the sea. I say 
 fortunately, because I look upon the sea as a 
 swindler, for it robs one of just half one's 
 little world and upsets all calculations by 
 forcing one to live in a mean semicircle. I 
 actually know a rat-catcher who is stupid 
 enough to live in a village on the east coast, 
 and half his time he and his dogs are at 
 home in idleness and are half starved, 
 because the ever-restless tiresome sea rolls 
 about and disports itself over all that is east 
 of the village, so the poor man can only go 
 rat-catching in one direction. Now and 
 then I go to the sea-side, but when I go 
 there it is on business not in my Sunday 
 clothes and with a " tripper's " return ticket, 
 
CH. viii.] Trip to the Seaside. 131 
 
 but with my dogs, ferrets, nets (the long 
 ones) and the boy Jack ; he and I dressed in 
 our well-worn corduroys, gaiters, and navvy 
 boots ; and instead of choosing a town to 
 visit with Marine Parade, Esplanades, Lodg- 
 ings to let, Brass Bands, Nigger Minstrels 
 and spouting M.P.'s, we go to a little village 
 unknown to " trippers," and put up at a 
 small inn for a week or ten days. We sleep 
 in a room not unlike a hay-loft, and take our 
 meals and rest in the common kitchen, with 
 its rattling latticed windows and sanded 
 floor. 
 
 We go there twice each winter to kill 
 rabbits on what are called the " Denes," 
 which are great, wide, down-like lands on the 
 top of the steep earth cliff, partially covered 
 with the ever-flowering gorse, a cover dear 
 to rabbits and all sorts of game. We reach 
 the inn in time for an early dinner ; and after 
 we have housed the ferrets in a big tub and 
 
 K 2 
 
132 Studies in Rat Catching, [en vili. 
 
 the dogs in a warm dry shed with heaps of 
 straw to sleep on, Jack and I despatch our 
 food and then start off to inspect the field of 
 our future operations. We have not far to 
 go. First down the street, past two or three 
 dozen flint-pebble cottages ; past the church, 
 with its square tower so high that it makes 
 the really big church look small in proportion ; 
 past the rectory ; past the schools, where 
 some forty or fifty future fishermen and 
 sailors have just finished their tasks for the 
 day and come rolling out, dressed all alike in 
 dark, sea-stained, canvas trousers and thick 
 sailor jerseys ; past the low one-storied cot- 
 tage where the old retired naval captain has 
 lived for many years, and then up a sandy 
 lane between high crumbling banks and out 
 on to the open Denes. We take a path 
 that runs close along on the top of the cliff, 
 mounting a steep hill as we go till we reach 
 a spot half a mile further on, where the sea 
 
CH. VIIL] Surveying the Hunting Ground. 133 
 
 cliff is four hundred feet high and nearly 
 perpendicular ; and here among the ruins of 
 an old church, part of which has fallen with 
 the slipping cliff into the sea many years ago, 
 Jack and I halt and take a look round. We 
 are on the highest spot within miles, and 
 spread out in front of us, as we face inland, 
 are, first, the down-like hills, dotted over with 
 patches of gorse and with turf between as 
 fine and soft as a Persian carpet ; then culti- 
 vated fields intersected by thick hedges ; and 
 in the distance we could distinguish a clus- 
 tering village here, a homestead there, an 
 old manor-house in its well-kept garden and 
 park-like grounds, and in all directions the 
 square, solid, picturesque towers of village 
 churches peeping from among the trees, that 
 became thicker and thicker the further the 
 eye travelled from the sea. Close to our 
 left, just under the shoulder of a hill which 
 protects it from the keen east wind off the 
 
134 Studies in Rat Catching, [en. vin. 
 
 sea, is a tiny village of some ten cottages, 
 all different, all neat and snug-looking, each 
 in its own garden. There is a stand of bee- 
 hives in one, a honeysuckle-covered porch to 
 another, and, though it is mid-winter, there is a 
 warm home-like look about all. Then there is 
 the one farm-house, well kept and well cared 
 for, but old and belonging to other days, as its 
 gables and low windows denote ; and from 
 our high hill we look over the house into a 
 garden and orchard beyond, both enclosed 
 by grey lichen-covered walls. On either side 
 in front of the house are the farm buildings, 
 all, from the big barn to the row of pigsties, 
 thatched with long reeds, which give the 
 whole a pleasant English home appearance. 
 
 There are big yards filled with red and 
 white cattle up to their middle in straw, 
 others full of horses or young calves ; cocks 
 and hens are everywhere, ducks and geese 
 swim in the big pond by the side of the road, 
 
CH. VIIL] A View from the Cliffs. 135 
 
 and turkeys, so big and plump they make 
 one long for Christmas, mob together in 
 the yard, and the turkey-cocks "gobble- 
 gobble " at a boy who is infuriating them by 
 whistling. A man crosses the yard with two 
 pails on a yoke, evidently going a-milking ; 
 and another passes with a perfect hay-stack 
 on his back, and a dozen great heavy horses 
 come out of the stable in Indian file and 
 stump off to the pond to drink. Beyond the 
 farmstead, in a field on the right of the road, 
 is a double row of heaped up mangels and 
 swedes ; and a little further on are a number 
 of stacks, so neatly built and thatched that it 
 seems quite a pity they should soon be pulled 
 down and thrashed, but all showing signs 
 of prosperity and plenty. 
 
 Beyond this stands a tiny church, with 
 reed-thatch roof. It is all, church and 
 tower, built of round flint stones as big 
 as oranges, cleverly split in two and the flat 
 
136 Studies in Rat Catching, [en. vin 
 
 side facing outwards ; and from the dog-tooth 
 Saxon arch over the door one knows it has 
 seen many generations pass away and find 
 rest from the buffets and storms of the 
 world in the peaceful, carefully- tended " God's 
 acre " that surrounds it. If one passed 
 down the red gravel churchyard path, and on 
 in front of the south door to the far corner, 
 under the big cedar, a small door would be 
 found, which would lead through a well-kept, 
 old-fashioned garden to the Rectory : a good 
 old Elizabethan house, covered with thick 
 creepers up to the very eaves, the model of 
 one of England's snug homes homes that 
 have turned out the very best men the dear 
 old land has produced, to fight, struggle, 
 conquer or die in all professions, in all parts 
 of the world ; men who in such shelters 
 learned to be honest and true, brave and 
 persevering, lions in courage, women in 
 gentleness ; who could face hardships and 
 
CH. viii.] A Sea View. 137 
 
 poverty without a moan, and prosperity and 
 riches without swagger ; and through all the 
 difficulties of life thought of the old home, 
 and when success arrived, be they ever so 
 far away, packed up and came back to finish 
 their days in just such another home and 
 such surroundings. 
 
 Turn round now, Jack ; turn round and 
 take a look at the restless sea rolling its big 
 waters on the smooth strip of sand there 
 below on this side ; and on the other, Jack, far, 
 far away over there in the south, on the other 
 side of the world, laving the roots of the 
 palm and the mangrove, beneath the burning 
 rays of tropical suns ; and away round here, 
 Jack, far in the north, dashing its storm- 
 driven waves against the face of frost-bound 
 rocks and treacherous icebergs. There on 
 the dancing waters, with all sails set, chasing 
 the lights and shadows as they flit before it, 
 sails a boat bound south to sunny climes. 
 
138 Studies in Rat Catching. |_CH. vm. 
 
 There on the horizon, against wind and 
 wave, steams a collier, taking fuel to lands 
 where the snow lies deep on the ground for 
 four months in the year ; and right and left, 
 outward bound or coming home, are various 
 white sails dotting the waters. But, Jack, 
 how about supper ? I ordered eggs and 
 bacon for supper, and those chimney corners 
 at the inn looked as if they might be snug 
 and warm to smoke a pipe in afterwards 
 before turning in. Step on, Jack, and have 
 supper ready in half an hour, while I go 
 round by the Rectory and see if the two 
 young gentlemen are at home. They are the 
 right sort, and as keen as Pepper after the 
 rabbits, and they always have half a dozen 
 good terriers as fond of the sport as they 
 are. 
 
 At the Rectory I received a kindly wel- 
 come from Miss Madge Ashfield, the rector's 
 only daughter and the sister of the two lads 
 
CH. VIIL] The Rectors Daughter. 139 
 
 I came to enquire for ; and I was told that 
 they were not yet back from school, but were 
 expected in three days, and that only that 
 morning a letter came from them asking 
 when I was likely to come and work the 
 Denes. I comforted Miss Madge, who at 
 first feared the pick of the sport might be 
 over before her brothers arrived, by telling 
 her that for the next four days Jack and I 
 should be busy " doctoring " holes, and that 
 during that time we could not "away with " 
 boys or dogs, as both were too noisy for the 
 work. 
 
 Miss Madge took me round to the kennels 
 to see some rough wire-haired terriers, old 
 friends ; also three new ones, all supposed to 
 be wonders ; and she told me she would 
 arrange for her brothers to bring one day 
 five small beagles belonging to a friend. 
 
 Jack and I did our duty by the ham and 
 eggs that night at the inn, and the pipe in 
 
140 Studies in Rat Catching. [_cu. vm. 
 
 the old-fashioned chimney corner was very 
 sweet ; and if the beds were a bit hard and 
 knubbly, we did not keep awake to think of 
 them, for we had both been up since day- 
 break. By eight o'clock the next morning 
 we had finished breakfast, given the dogs a 
 few minutes' run to stretch their legs, fed the 
 ferrets that were not wanted, and were on 
 our way to the Denes, each with two strong 
 male ferrets, a spade, and game-bag with 
 cold meat and bread in it. We were on our 
 way to " doctor " the burrows, and this is 
 done by running a muzzled ferret that has 
 first been smeared with a little spirits of tar 
 down every hole, with a line on it. It is 
 necessary to keep very quiet, so as to get 
 the rabbits to bolt. We don't want to kill 
 a single rabbit, but only to disturb hole after 
 hole, bolt what rabbits we can, and leave a 
 nice sweet smell of tarred ferret behind us. 
 No time is lost. Jack goes one way and I 
 
Cii vili.J Doctoring the &urrows. 141 
 
 another, and every hole is visited till evening 
 shades stop us ; then back home to supper 
 and bed, and at it again in the morning ; but 
 on the second day we begin by visiting each 
 hole we ferreted the day before, stopping 
 them tight down with sods, and sticking a 
 piece of white paper on the top of such 
 stopped holes. No fear of shutting in a 
 rabbit, as the smell of the tarred ferret will 
 keep them out for days ; and no fear of their 
 opening the stopping, as the paper will 
 drive them away. For four days this work 
 goes on, and we are ready to wager there is 
 not a hole in the cliffs or Denes that is not 
 doctored, and .lot a rabbit that is not above 
 ground. 
 
 It was Wednesday night when we had 
 finished, and that evening the two boys from 
 the Rectory came down to the inn to see us 
 and get instructions for the morrow ; but I 
 was glad they did not stay long, for we 
 
142 Studies in Rat Catching [CH. vin. 
 
 wanted to go to bed early, so as to get a 
 good night and yet be up betimes. By eight 
 o'clock next morning, Jack and I were 
 already back from the Denes, after having 
 run out one thousand yards of long nets. 
 The nets are in lengths of about one hundred 
 yards, and two feet six inches high, made of 
 fine string, and each of the top and bottom 
 meshes knotted on to a cord that runs the 
 entire length. To set these nets, they are 
 threaded on to a smooth stick, four feet long, 
 and the stick with the nets on is thrown over 
 a man's shoulder. The man walks off with 
 the nets along the border of the piece of 
 ground to be enclosed, while another, after 
 fixing the end of the first net fast to a start- 
 ing stick, follows behind. As the man with 
 the net proceeds, he lets the net slip slowly 
 off the stick on his shoulder, piece by piece ; 
 and, as it comes down, the man behind picks 
 up the top line, gives the net a shake, and 
 
CH. viii.] Running out Nets. 143 
 
 twists the line round the top of stakes 
 previously placed in the ground about fifty 
 yards apart, taking care as he goes that the 
 bottom of the net lies for a few inches on 
 the ground. In this way squares of gorse of 
 about two hundred yards can be entirely 
 enclosed, and every rabbit inside them 
 surrounded like sheep inside a fold. 
 
 Our breakfast over, we were soon out 
 again with all our dogs (except old Chance, 
 who had been left at home on account of her 
 age, and also on account of her trick of 
 always liking to go up to the carrier's each 
 night to sleep), and we had also two real 
 good lurchers. At the foot of the Denes we 
 met the boys from the Rectory, with a 
 friend about their own age, and the curate 
 of the next parish with a business-like ash 
 stick under his arm ; and among them they 
 had mustered a pack of ten terriers, some of 
 which wanted to begin work by a fight with 
 
144 Studies in Rat Catching, [en. vili. 
 
 my dogs ; but it takes two to make a quarrel, 
 and my dogs knew better than to waste their 
 strength in fighting when there was a day's 
 work in front of them. 
 
 In a few minutes we were at the first piece 
 of netted gorse a real tearer, close, compact 
 and a mass of thorns ; but what dogs or. boys 
 care for gorse thorns when rabbits are on 
 foot ? So it is, " Over you go, boys ! " " Hie 
 in, dogs ! Roust them out there ! " and the 
 old dogs spring the nets and are at work in 
 a minute, while the young ones blunder and 
 struggle in the nets, and have to be lifted 
 over. The curate, Jack and I, and the man 
 who drove the cart with the nets, and who 
 will carry off the dead rabbits, stand at the 
 nets and take out and kill the rabbits that 
 get caught ; and for the first hour we have as 
 much as we can -do, and work our hardest. 
 Many rabbits do get through the nets, and 
 others go back, and these latter it is difficult 
 
CIT. viii.] " Hie in, Good Dogs ! " 145 
 
 to get into the nets a second time, and they 
 are killed by the dogs in the thick gorse. 
 Yap ! yap ! yap ! " Hie in, good dogs ! hie 
 in, young ones ! Ah ! back there ! back ! no 
 going over the nets ! Would you ? Look 
 here ! hie there ! in you go ! " Yap ! yap ! 
 yap ! all scurry, rush and bustle ; and the 
 Rectory boys and their friend are all over 
 the square at once, and in ten minutes so 
 tingle from innumerable pricks from the 
 gorse that they are benumbed and feel 
 them no more. " Go, Fly, go ! " and a big 
 hare dashes out, with Fly after it, and both 
 jump the net and make for another clump of 
 gorse ; but Fly has never been beaten since 
 she was a puppy, and soon returns with the 
 hare in her mouth. " Hie in, dogs ! hie 
 in ! " There are more yet, and we are bound 
 to make a clean sweep ; and so the work 
 goes on. 
 
 First one patch, and then another, till 
 
 i, 
 
146 Studies in Rat Catching, [en. vm. 
 
 lunch-time, which said lunch, according to 
 a long-standing custom, comes up in a cart 
 from the Rectory ; but after snatching a 
 hurried bit, the man and I have to bustle 
 away to shift the nets, a work that keeps us 
 hard at it for an hour and more ; but long 
 before we have done, the boys, parson and 
 dogs are at it again in one of the first 
 patches we have surrounded, and it is night 
 and the moon is up before we have finished 
 and picked up the nets. We find on 
 counting the bag that we have two hundred 
 and seventy rabbits, and feel content with 
 our day's work. On Friday and Saturday 
 the same work, and when we turned home- 
 wards on this last night, it was as much as 
 man, boys or dogs could do to drag them- 
 selves along ; but we had killed six hundred 
 and fifty rabbits in the three days and were 
 well content. 
 
( 147 ) 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 SUNDAY was to us all a real day of rest, and 
 we enjoyed every minute of it, and for once 
 listened to a very long sermon without the 
 fidgets. The Rectory boys came up for a 
 chat in the afternoon, so we let the dogs out 
 and went down to the beach and strolled 
 quietly about, neither dogs nor humans 
 indulging in anything like play all were 
 too stiff and sore to think of it. 
 
 We were all out again early on Monday 
 morning, but without nets and taking only 
 sticks ; and we spent a short day, with a long 
 lunch, looking up outlying rabbits in the 
 hedges of the farm at the foot of the Denes ; 
 and here the two lurchers, who during 'the 
 days at the nets had taken it easy and 
 
 L 2 
 
148 Studies in Rat Catching, [en. ix. 
 
 refused to face the gorsc, had the chief of 
 the work, for directly a rabbit was started by 
 the other dogs, it made straight off across 
 the open for the gorse on the Denes, and the 
 lurchers were the only dogs fast enough to 
 catch them. We finally had to give up 
 work because the clogs of all sorts were too 
 tired to move, and also because the weather, 
 that had been fine and calm all the previous 
 week, began to break, and before we reached 
 shelter there was half a gale sending big 
 green waves thundering on to the beach and 
 carrying the salt spray far inland. 
 
 That night, after Jack was in bed and 
 asleep, I put on my hat and went out, called 
 by the noise of the waters. I joined a group 
 of weather-beaten hard-featured men dressed 
 in thick blue jerseys and "sou-wester" 
 hats, who stood with their hands tucked 
 deep into their trouser pockets, watching 
 the sea from behind the shelter of a boat 
 
en. ix.] The Beginning of a Storw. 149 
 
 stranded high up on the beach. I got a civil 
 word of greeting as I came up, and then we 
 all watched in silence, for by this time the 
 ' half gale" had become a storm, and it was 
 only by shouting we could have made each 
 other hear. It was a wild weird scene, awe- 
 inspiring, but intensely attractive at least 1 
 found it so ; but then such scenes did not 
 often come before me, and I daresay my 
 companions, who were well used to being 
 out on such a night, only felt thankful they 
 were safe on shore, and thought with anxiety 
 of those of their friends and neighbours who 
 were out battling with the storm. The 
 moon when I reached the beach was nearly 
 at the full and high up in the heavens, but it 
 shed a fitful light, as each few seconds dark 
 clouds and veils of mist flew across its face. 
 One moment the sea lay before us a dark 
 black mass, only marked along the beach 
 by a broad strip of breaking, foam-crested 
 
150 Studies in Rat Catching. 
 
 waves ; and the next it was a dancing, 
 tossing, roaring sheet of ever-changing liquid 
 silver ; or far away we would see the spray 
 like pearls rising high in the air before the 
 storm, and at our feet the waves curled up 
 like huge furious monsters, dashing at the 
 sands and shingle as if bent on destruction, 
 and then with a swirl sliding back, a mass oi 
 foam, to meet and join the next wave, and 
 with its help again come on to the attack. 
 
 Over and over again I fancied I could 
 hear the shrieks and groans of people in 
 distress, and I turned for confirmation of 
 my fancies to the faces of my companions ; 
 but all remained unmoved, but bore the 
 quiet determined look that assured me that, 
 had any unfortunate beings called for help 
 from the midst of those wild waters, at the 
 risk of those men's lives it would unhesita- 
 tingly have been given. Once for a moment, 
 when a thin mist swept before the moon and 
 
CH. ix.] A Skip in Distress. 151 
 
 made the light on the waters appear more 
 like day than night, I clearly saw on the 
 horizon the upper part of a ship's masts, with 
 some sails bent to their yards, and all heeled 
 over as if the ship were then about to 
 founder, and I gave a loud exclamation ; but 
 an old sailor put his hand on my shoulder 
 and called in my ear, " All right, master, all 
 right ! We have watched her for a quarter of 
 an hour trying to make the point of the 
 sands yonder, and she is now past them and 
 has an open sea. She is as safe as you are 
 now, thank God ; but it was a near shave, and 
 we thought she and all in her were gone." 
 Often since then in my dreams I have seen 
 that wind-tossed sea, and heard the roar of 
 the waters and the screams of the storm, and 
 seen those masts and sails heeling over, and 
 have awoke with a start and dread fear in 
 my heart. 
 
 I had been tired when I came in from 
 
152 Studies in Rat Catching, [en. ix. 
 
 work, and I had a snug warm bed waiting 
 for me, and moreover I reasoned that watch- 
 ing a storm in the dead of night was no part 
 of a rat-catchers duty ; but I was so fasci- 
 nated I could not tear myself away, and I 
 stood with my companions behind the boat 
 till long after midnight. Then two other 
 figures dressed like my companions joined 
 us, and it was only when they spoke that I 
 recognised one as the parson of the parish, 
 and the other as the young curate who had 
 helped us with the rabbits. Both asked a 
 few questions of the sailors, who seemed 
 eager to give them information ; and then the 
 rector, turning to me, said : " You will be 
 perished by the cold if you stand here longer. 
 Come with me, and I will show you a picture 
 of a different sort, but yet one that I think 
 will interest you." I readily accepted and 
 followed my friend, who, though far from a 
 young man, bore the buffeting of the storm 
 
CM. ix.] The Village Harbour. 153 
 
 manfully ; and he led me up through the 
 village street, and then turning down a short 
 steep lane brought me to a little cove that 
 was partly sheltered by a spit of rock that 
 jutted out into the sea. There, such as it 
 was, was the harbour of the village, and by 
 the fitful light I could see some dozen fishing 
 boats drawn up high on the beach above the 
 force of the waves ; and beyond, a cluster of 
 low, one-storied cottages and sheds, with 
 small boats, spars, timbers, windlasses, etc., 
 all denoting the home of fishermen. From 
 this cove, early that morning, two boats had 
 sailed with their nets for the fishing grounds 
 out beyond the sands, and it was for these 
 my friends behind the boat were patiently 
 watching, and it was to say a few words to 
 cheer and comfort the wives and families of 
 these men that the old rector had now 
 come. 
 
 From a latticed window just in front of us 
 
154 Studies in Rat Catching, [en. ix. 
 
 a bright lamp shed its rays over the cove, 
 and the rector took me straight to the door 
 of this house, and having knocked and been 
 told to come in, he lifted the latch and 
 ushered me inside. The room was like 
 hundreds of others along that coast, the 
 homes of the toilers of the deep, and bore 
 evident signs of being made by men more 
 used to ships than stone or brick buildings. 
 It was a good large room, very low, with 
 heavy rafters overhead, which, with the 
 planks of which the walls were constructed, 
 had doubtless been taken from boats and 
 ships that had served their time on the sea. 
 The open fireplace at the end, with its wide 
 chimney, was the only part of the building 
 not made of old ship timbers and planks, and 
 there was a strong smell of tar from these 
 and from sundry coils of dark rope that were 
 stowed away in a far corner. The long 
 table down the middle of the room was of 
 
CH. ix.j A Fisherman s Home. 155 
 
 mahogany and had seen better days in a 
 captain's cabin. The benches round the 
 walls had served as seats on some big ship's 
 deck ; and there were swinging lamps and 
 racks hung overhead from the rafters, with 
 rudders, boat-hook, snatch-block, belaying 
 pins, and various things I did not know the 
 use of; but all were neatly arranged. There 
 was a large arm-chair made out of a barrel 
 set ready by the side of the hearth, on which 
 were spread clean flannel clothes to warm 
 and air, in readiness for the home-coming of 
 the wet and tired husband. 
 
 In front of the fire, attending to it and 
 to three or four pots and kettles that 
 simmered on the hearth, stood a woman 
 about thirty years of age just an ordinary 
 fisherman's wife, strong and well shaped, 
 without beauty of feature, but bright and 
 intelligent looking ; and when a smile lit up 
 her face, it shed such a kindly ray that one 
 
156 Studies in Rat Catching, [en. ix. 
 
 \ 
 
 felt that the husband in the little fishing boat 
 on the storm-tossed deep might have his eyes 
 fixed on the lantern burning in the window, 
 but it would be the light of the wife's smile 
 that kept his hand steady on the helm and 
 guided the boat, and made him long to 
 round the point and come to anchor. 
 
 On the other side of the hearth was 
 another arm-chair, also made out of a barrel, 
 but much smaller ; and in this, packed tightly 
 and snugly round with cushions, half-sat, 
 half-reclined a boy about ten years of age ; 
 but, alas ! a pair of crutches leaning in the 
 corner beside him at once told a sad tale. I 
 know the points and beauties of all sorts of 
 dogs, and always admire them, but I am not 
 much of a hand at the good points and 
 beauties of men and women, and as for 
 boys, it is rare I see anything but mischief 
 written in their faces; but somehow I could 
 not take my eyes off the boy in the chair. I 
 
en. ix.] Little Jack, the Cripple. 157 
 
 suppose because it was so different to any 
 other young face I had ever seen, and so 
 different to what one might expect to find 
 amid the surroundings of a fisherman's 
 cottage. 
 
 It was a dark, delicate, oval face, like a 
 girl's, with finely cut features, and a com- 
 plexion as fair as the petals of an apple 
 blossom ; but it was his great brown eyes 
 and long eyelashes, black as night, that held 
 the attention, together with a look of deep 
 patient suffering, mingled with gentleness 
 and love that lit all up, and filled even the 
 heart of a rough old rat-catcher like me with 
 a feeling of deep pity and an intense desire 
 to protect and befriend a small creature 
 who looked too fragile, too beautiful, and 
 too good for this old work-a-day world of 
 ours, and as if he were only tarrying for a 
 short while before going to his eternal 
 home, where his features will be beautified 
 
158 Studies in Rat Catching. [CH. ix. 
 
 by perfect love, and will lose the look of 
 suffering and pain. 
 
 The rector, taking off his " sou'-wester" 
 as he entered, turned to the woman with a 
 cheery voice, and said, " Well, Mary, how 
 are you and the boy ? how are you, my 
 man ? I happened to be passing " (just as if 
 it were quite a common thing for a parson to 
 be out on the loose at one a.m. on a winter's 
 night), (< and I thought I would just call in to 
 say that the men at the boats tell me that 
 the bark of this gale is far worse than its 
 bitfc, and that it is a fair, honest, rattling 
 gale that such good sailors as your husband 
 care nothing for, and that we may expect 
 the boats in with the daylight, so you may 
 keep the pots boiling. But why isn't that 
 youngster snug in bed and asleep ? Oh ! he 
 can't sleep when the wind howls, and Jack 
 is away ! Why, my boy, Jack will laugh at 
 you when he comes home, and say he don't 
 
CH. ix.] Waiting for the Boats. 159 
 
 want such big, tired-looking eyes watching 
 for him ! Well, it will be morning soon, and, 
 please God, Jack will be here, and will have 
 popped you into bed himself before most of 
 the world are up and about." At this Mary 
 smiled ; and the little boy, with a low laugh, 
 said : " Jack knows Mary and I are waiting 
 for him. Jack says he can often see us, and 
 all we are doing, when he is out at sea in a 
 raging storm, and the night is ever so dark ; 
 and he'd feel bad, Jack would, if I was not up 
 to see him eat his supper ; and besides, Mary 
 could not sit here alone and listen to the 
 wind and sea, and I am never tired and 
 sleepy when waiting for Jack. Besides, Jack 
 says he must tell someone all he has done 
 and seen while he gets his supper, and Mary- 
 is too busy after the nets and things, so I sit 
 here, and Jack tells me of such wonderful 
 things : it is just lovely to hear him." 
 
 The rector would not sit down, and soon 
 
160 Studies in Rat Catching, [en. ix. 
 
 hurried me off to another cottage, much such 
 another as the first ; but instead of Mary and 
 the boy, we found a great, tall, gaunt old 
 woman, sitting up before the fire, waiting for 
 her two grandsons, who were away in the 
 same boat with Jack ; but to the rector's 
 cheery, hopeful words, the woman answered 
 with a bitter, sharp, complaining tongue : "I 
 don't want no stop-at-home idle chaps to tell 
 me what a storm is. Danger ! who says 
 there's danger ? Danger with a little puff of 
 wind like this ? Not but what both of those 
 boys will be washed ashore one day as their 
 grandfather and father were. It's in the 
 blood, and trying for a lone woman. Drat 
 the boys ! I told them not to go off with 
 Jack. I could see plain for days that it was 
 coming on to blow ; but oh, no ! they know 
 better than me, who have lived to lose their 
 father in such a storm as this, and to see his 
 boat with my own eyes go to pieces on the 
 
cir. ix.] A Rough Old Fish-Wife. 16 1 
 
 Point as she came in, and not a man saved, 
 and me left with them boys to keep. God 
 only knows how I did it, and now they are 
 that masterful they won't pay no attention to 
 me." And then, as a hurricane of wind dashed 
 at the door and windows and sent the smoke 
 from the wood fire far out into the room, the 
 poor old thing started and turned to the 
 night outside with a look of terror ; and, as 
 the storm rushed on, and then there was a 
 lull, she threw her apron over her head and 
 sobbed for fear and deep anxiety for her 
 grandsons. 
 
 The rector comforted her with gentle 
 words and praise of her pluck and nerves ; 
 and as he and I returned to the beach, he 
 told me that the old woman had once been 
 the prettiest girl for many miles round, that 
 when her boys were far too young to help 
 her the father had been drowned by the 
 upsetting of his boat on the Point, and from 
 
 M 
 
1 62 Studies in Rat Catching, [en. ix. 
 
 that day she had worked and toiled, mending 
 nets and selling fish in fair weather and 
 foul, often weary and half-starved, but suc- 
 ceeding in the end to keep her old cottage 
 over her head, and to bring her boys up 
 respectably and turn them out two of the 
 smartest fishermen along the coast. 
 
 As we left the cottage the first tender 
 light of the morning was paling the eastern 
 sky far out to sea, and hastening on to the 
 Point, we could just make out a distant sail 
 appearing now and then out of the departing 
 darkness of the night, and before half an hour 
 was over the rector declared it to be Jack's 
 boat coming in fast before the wind. All 
 the village was astir in a minute, old men 
 and young women and children hurrying to 
 the cove and making ready for the home- 
 coming ; and in a few minutes the boat, with 
 Jack holding the helm and the old woman's 
 boys sitting crouched low down, clashed past 
 
CH. ix.] The Return of the Fishermen. 163 
 
 the Point, turned sharp into the cove, and 
 down in a moment fell the sail and the 
 anchor-chain rattled out of the bows. There 
 was no cheering or noisy welcome or rejoic- 
 ing, for such scenes were the daily incidents 
 in the life of the village ; but everyone lent 
 a helping hand, and in a few minutes Jack 
 and his men were on shore. The old grand- 
 mother was there, but took no notice of her 
 grandsons, who marched off to the cottage 
 laden with oars, etc., where the old woman 
 had just preceded them to put out the 
 breakfast. 
 
 The rector and I turned to go home, and 
 as I passed the cottage where Jack lived I 
 glanced in and saw him standing on the 
 hearth, tall, massive, weather-beaten and 
 rugged, with the lame boy high up in his 
 arms looking hard in his face, and both man 
 and child had such a happy contented smile 
 on their faces that it did me good to see, and 
 
 M 2 
 
164 Studies in Rat Catching, [en. ix. 
 
 I think may have rejoiced even the angels 
 above. 
 
 When parting from me at the inn door, 
 the rector said that if I liked to step up to 
 the rectory that evening after my supper he 
 would find me a pipe of tobacco, and tell me 
 all that was known of the history of the little 
 boy who had awakened such an interest in 
 me, for, he added, "it is a very curious 
 story." 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 AT eight o'clock, having fed my dogs and 
 ferrets and left my boy Jack chatting in the 
 harness-room with the rector's old coach- 
 man, I found myself in a snug arm-chair, 
 pipe in mouth, my feet on the fender, and 
 the rector sitting opposite me in his study, 
 he also enjoying an after-dinner pipe ; and 
 after a chat over the events of the day and 
 of the storm of the previous night, the 
 rector began the history of the poor lame 
 boy at the cottage thus 
 
 " I dare say you remember that about 
 eight years ago the Irish question was giving 
 the authorities much trouble and anxiety 
 owing to the active turn it had then taken. 
 Hideous murders were of daily occurrence 
 
f 66 Stiidies in Rat Catching, [en. x. 
 
 in that unfortunate country. Dynamite was 
 being used in London to destroy our public 
 buildings, and many of our statesmen were 
 being tracked by paid assassins. Strict 
 orders had been issued by the authorities 
 to watch all our ports to prevent the landing 
 from America of arms and infernal machines, 
 and both the police and Customs officers 
 were on the alert ; and yet, in spite of all, 
 bloodthirsty, cowardly dynamiters and assas- 
 sins succeeded in sneaking into the country, 
 and every now and then perpetrated some 
 hateful outrage. Well, it was during this 
 time that one November morning a queer- 
 looking yacht-like vessel appeared in the 
 offing, and for two days kept standing about. 
 During the day-time it was well out in the 
 ofting, but once or twice at night it was 
 noticed by the coastguard and sailors to 
 have come close in to land, and altogether 
 its movements were so mysterious that our 
 
en. x.] The Rector s Story. 167 
 
 suspicions were fully aroused, and the officer 
 of the coastguard telegraphed to the cap- 
 tain of the gunboat stationed at Brockmouth 
 to put him on the alert. 
 
 " For some days after this nothing was seen 
 of the yacht, and our suspicions were lulled, 
 and life in our quiet little village had settled 
 down to its usual routine, when early one 
 stormy morning the strange vessel was again 
 seen close off the land, and a boat manned 
 by six men put off for the little harbour ; and 
 just as it rounded the Point and got into 
 smooth water, a dog-cart, that we all recog- 
 nised as one let out for hire in a town ten 
 miles inland, drove down to the beach. 
 Beside the driver sat a tall, thin, dark man, 
 but the few people on the beach had only 
 time to observe this and that he had the 
 dress and appearance of a gentleman, when 
 he sprang from the cart and hurried to 
 where the boat lay, and without hesitating a 
 
1 68 Studies in Rat Catching, [ci-i. x. 
 
 moment or speaking to anyone he waded out 
 through the low surf to the boat, which at 
 once left the harbour and made the best of 
 its way to the yacht, which as soon as all 
 were on board hoisted all sail and was soon 
 out of sight, driven along by a storm that 
 became in the course of the day as fierce a 
 one as that of last night. There was much 
 talk on the beach among the fishermen and 
 in the village among us all as to what the 
 yacht could be and who the stranger was ; 
 and we gathered from the driver of the 
 dog-cart, who had put up his horse at the inn 
 to rest, that he had been called by the porter 
 at the railway station to drive the gentleman 
 over ; but that he had not heard his name, 
 or what business brought him here. The 
 driver, who was a sharp old fellow, said the 
 gentleman had chatted with him as he came 
 along, but kept pressing him to drive faster 
 and faster, and gave him five shillings above 
 
CH. x.] A Ship in Danger. 169 
 
 his fare to use his best speed, and he added : 
 ' I don't know who he is, or what his busi- 
 ness may be, but I know one thing he is 
 an Irishman. I can tell it by his tongue, 
 and by his queer-looking blue eyes and dark 
 hair. 
 
 " Four and twenty hours passed, and during 
 that time many people, I among the number, 
 did not go to bed, for the storm which had 
 sprung up with the departing yacht had 
 blown itself into half a hurricane, and there 
 were fishing boats out, which made us all 
 anxious. As we did last night, or rather this 
 morning, I went round to a few of the fisher- 
 men's houses where there were anxious wives 
 and mothers waiting for the absent, and 
 chatted with and cheered them, and I was 
 leaving the two cottages that I daresay you 
 noticed close under the rock towards the 
 Point when the first streaks of morning began 
 to appear in the east. I love to see the 
 
170 Studies in Rat Catching. [CH. x. 
 
 day break at any time, but I especially like 
 to watch it over a stormy angry sea ; and 
 therefore sheltering myself a little behind a 
 boulder, I stood gazing for a while, when 
 presently, like a thing of life, came plunging 
 and driving from the very gates of the morn- 
 ing the same yacht that had so puzzled us. 
 On and on it came, close-hauled to the wind, 
 straight for the narrow rock-bound jaws of 
 the cove ; and I saw at a glance that, if it 
 kept its course, it must strike on a group of 
 rocks some half-mile out at sea ; and, parson 
 as I am, I knew, should she strike them, no 
 human aid could save the lives of those on 
 board. 
 
 " I hardly know what I did, except that I 
 took off my coat and waved it frantically, 
 and mounted the highest pinnacle on the 
 rocky point to make myself seen by the 
 fated crew ; but though at last I could 
 actually distinguish two men at the wheel 
 
en. x.] Running Straight on the Rocks. 171 
 
 holding the vessel close to the wind, 
 yet they took no notice, and came on 
 and on, leaping waves mountains high 
 one minute, and lost to sight the next in the 
 trough of the seas. Scores of fishermen 
 soon joined me, and even their wives 
 followed and crouched near, behind the 
 rocks ; and so fully was the ship's danger 
 realized, that from time to time a deep 
 groan, half of despair, half prayer, went up 
 from all. There was but one hope could 
 the yacht be kept close enough to the wind 
 to lead those steering her to believe they 
 could make the entrance of the harbour ? 
 or would she be carried far enough to wind- 
 ward to make this impossible, and so force 
 those in charge to alter her course to avoid 
 the stiff cliffs beyond ? Ah, no ! We saw as 
 we watched that she was too good a vessel 
 to fall off to leeward, and those handling her 
 too good sailors to allow her to do so, for she 
 
172 St^ldies in Rat Catching. [CH. x. 
 
 flew over the waves like a beautiful bird for 
 the entrance of the harbour, and the sunken 
 rocks were in her direct line ! 
 
 " Suddenly as we watched, with every sense 
 strained to the utmost, and our eyes rivetted 
 on the doomed ship, we heard away out to 
 sea the boom of a big gun, and then another, 
 and presently we saw emerging from the fast 
 diminishing darkness a low, long steamer. 
 At first we thought it was a ship also in 
 deep distress, making signals ; but the old 
 sailors soon saw this was not so, and declared 
 rt was a gunboat firing at the yacht in the 
 hope of driving her on to the rock-bound 
 coast, and also to attract the attention of 
 the coastguard, so that, should she reach 
 the harbour, those on board might be pre- 
 vented from escaping the hands of justice. 
 It was a cruel service for British sailors to be 
 employed on, however necessary, and hard 
 to witness. Man hunting man to his death, 
 
ci-i. x.] To the Rescue. 173 
 
 when the wind and waves already held open 
 the portals of eternity before him, and little 
 short of a miracle could avert his doom ! 
 
 " A few minutes, a few hundred yards, and 
 the yacht is on the rocks ! Gallantly she 
 glides along the side of that green wave and 
 dashes the foam from her crest ere she 
 plunges deep into the sea. A monster wave 
 rolls fast upon her as if to swallow her 
 quivering form. High, high she rises, till 
 half her length is in the air over the crest of 
 the wave, and then down she sinks ; then 
 the crash comes. Waves dash over her, her 
 masts fall, her boats are wrenched from her 
 sides, and the next minute we see her, a 
 tangled mass of wreck and cordage, firmly 
 embedded on the pitiless rocks. Don't 
 suppose our fishermen had been quietly 
 watching this and doing nothing to help. 
 From the first, preparations had been made. 
 Our friend Jack, and a score of other active 
 
174 Studies in Rat Catching. [CH. x. 
 
 young men, had shoved off the only boat on 
 the beach that had the faintest hope of living 
 in a storm like this, and had been waiting in 
 it close to the harbour mouth some minutes 
 before the yacht struck. But so small was 
 the chance of that frail boat living in such a 
 sea, that many of the most experienced of 
 the sailors made signals to prevent the men 
 starting off to meet what they thought was 
 certain death. Others thought it might be 
 done, and waved contrary signals ; and it was 
 then that one saw what sort of women our 
 sailors' wives are, for though many standing 
 there with us had near and dear ones in that 
 boat, and were suffering tortures of anxiety, 
 not a word was spoken, but all was left for 
 the men to do as they thought right. 
 
 " As the yacht struck, a deep, wailing shout 
 went up from all on land, and those in the 
 boat knew what had happened, and the next 
 moment we saw the boat plunge into the 
 
CH. x.] Watching the Boat. 175 
 
 green waves at the harbour mouth. For a 
 moment it seemed to stagger and quail, and 
 then, impelled by those hands and muscles 
 of iron, it was driven forward through the 
 blinding spray into the angry sea beyond. 
 Shall I ever forget how we watched that 
 boat, now mounted high on the top of a 
 wave, now for moments lost to sight, the 
 men all straining at their oars to the utmost, 
 and always creeping forward yard by yard ? 
 All this time, we on the Point could see, with 
 increasing fears, that the hope of the yacht 
 holding together till reached by the rescuers 
 was but a faint one. Each monster wave 
 that rolled in lifted it from the rocks and left 
 it to fall back with an irresistible force midst 
 spray and foam, that constantly wholly hid 
 it from our sight ; and even before the boat 
 started, portions of the wreck were being 
 tossed about on the sea, making its passage 
 even more precarious. At one time a group 
 
176 .SVW/r.v in Rat Catching, [en. x. 
 
 of human beings was seen on the deck 
 clinging to some cordage ; hut when the next 
 wave passed, most of them had disappeared, 
 and we knew they had perished before our 
 eyes. It was difficult to distinguish objects 
 midst the turmoil, hut it soon was whispered 
 among us that some one or more persons 
 were crouching hehind the bulwarks, prob- 
 ably lashed there for safety, and from an 
 occasional llutter of a red scarf or garment, 
 we feared there was an unfortunate woman 
 among them ; and once, as the waves re- 
 ceded from the deck, we distinctly saw a man 
 rise up from the group and look for a 
 moment towards the approaching boat, and 
 then sink again beside his companions, just 
 as the incoming wave swept high over the 
 poor shelter the stout bulwark afforded. 
 
 " If the yacht could only hold together a 
 few minutes longer ! Hut no ! once more it 
 rises from its bed like some agonised, dying 
 
CH. x.] Breaking up of the Ship. 177 
 
 monster, and then as it falls back it parts in 
 two, and half of it is a drifting mass of planks 
 and timber, washing forward as if to meet the 
 boat and destroy it. A portion yet remained 
 fixed on the rock, and now and then we 
 could still see the group crouching behind 
 the bulwark. On and on fought the boat, 
 now a little out of the direct line to avoid the 
 wreckage, till it was close behind the wreck 
 and partially sheltered by the rampart it 
 formed against the sea ; but at that moment 
 all that remained of it was again lifted high 
 in the air and dashed forward ; and when 
 the wave had passed by, there was only the 
 frail boat with its brave crew to be seen on 
 the surface. We see it pause for a moment, 
 and then the oars all dip together, and the 
 boat dashes forward. Someone leans over the 
 bows, and there is a moment's struggle ; but 
 the mist and foam prevent our distinguishing 
 clearly what is going on. After a while they 
 
 N 
 
178 Studies in Rat Catching. [CH. x. 
 
 evidently find there is nothing further that 
 can be done ; the boat is put before the 
 waves and comes dashing back towards land. 
 " All on the Point hurried down to the 
 entrance of the harbour ; and many of the 
 men, with coils of rope in their hands, stood 
 ready to give assistance. As each wave 
 rolled under the boat, it flew through the 
 water, and then sank back again hidden 
 from our sight ; but nearer and nearer it 
 came on, till at last on the crest of a wave it 
 darted sharp round the Point, and lay tossing 
 in comparatively calm water. Steadily its 
 crew rowed it up the little harbour, and as it 
 approached the beach scores of ready hands 
 seized it and ran it high up on to dry land, and 
 a cheer rang out above the roar of the wind 
 to welcome those snatched from the jaws of 
 death. But this was not responded to by 
 the men in the boat. They all looked stern 
 and anxious ; and then we saw that Jack, 
 
OH. x.] Beyond the Storms of Life. 1 79 
 
 who was crouched in the bows, was support- 
 ing in his arms the slight form of a fair 
 young girl, with long, soft, tangled hair 
 falling around her and forming a frame to 
 the most beautiful saint-like face my eyes 
 had ever seen. Her lips were parted in a 
 smile, and her eyes looked down on a small 
 boy about two years old, who was bound in 
 her arms by a red scarf. At first I thought 
 she was fainting or falling asleep, but the 
 next moment merciful Heavens ! I saw 
 that the back of her sweet young head was 
 battered in and bleeding, and that she was 
 already beyond the storms of life and the 
 cruel raging of the destroying elements. 
 
 " Hard horny hands of rough women 
 tenderly and deftly unwound the scarf from 
 off the child ; and Jack's wife, Mary, pressing 
 him to her bosom, hastened with him to her 
 cottage, while the fair dead form was carried 
 to a fisherman's house close by, and a few 
 
 N 2 
 
180 Studies in Rat Catching, [en. x. 
 
 days later was laid in its quiet grave in the 
 old churchyard, within sound of the ruthless 
 sea that had so cruelly beaten the young life 
 out of it. 
 
 "You may easily find the grave, for the 
 fishermen out of their deep pity had a plain 
 cross put over it, with just the words 4 Jack's 
 mother' and the date of her dcatli carved 
 upon it. To this day, and I fancy for ever, 
 the only name she will be known by is 
 'Jack's mother/ for all connected with that 
 ill-fated yacht remains a mystery. Not a 
 living creature escaped, except that frail little 
 child. Many bodies were recovered during 
 the next few days, and among them the 
 remains of the man who had arrived the 
 previous day in the dog-cart ; but neither on 
 any of the bodies, nor among the wreckage 
 that came ashore, was anything found to 
 lead to the identification of the yacht or its 
 owners ; and though the account of the 
 
en. x.] Life in the Little One. 181 
 
 disaster appeared in all the papers and was 
 the talk of the county, yet no living soul has 
 ever come forward to claim connection with 
 the child or with any of those drowned. 
 
 " It was thought at the time that the owner 
 of the yacht was one of those desperate ruf- 
 fians of Irish extraction that have from time 
 to time arrived here from America, and that 
 when he so hastily joined the vessel he was 
 in fear of detection and was about to sail for 
 America. Anyhow the yacht was sighted 
 by the gunboat sent to look after it, and 
 chased and driven through the storm back 
 to our little harbour, it being doubtless the 
 intention of the fugitive to attempt his 
 escape by land if he could once reach the 
 shore. How miserably it ended you now 
 know; but you don't know quite all, for I 
 have not told you that, on reaching their 
 cottage, Jack's wife found that the little one 
 breathed. I have told you of the storm, and 
 
1 82 Studies in Rat Catching. [CH. x. 
 
 I have told you of the wreck ; but words 
 would fail to tell of all the love and care and 
 attention that was bestowed for weeks aye ! 
 for years, up to this day on the little one. 
 Only the recording angel can note such things, 
 and only the God of love can reward them. 
 Not that either Jack or his wife think of 
 rewards either from earth or in heaven, for 
 their love is wholly unselfish and all-satisfy- 
 ing ; and were only the boy well and strong, 
 I am sure that in all these realms there could 
 not be found a more perfectly happy trio 
 than Jack the fisherman, little Jack, and his 
 adopted mother. Unfortunately it was dis- 
 covered that in some way the child's back 
 had been injured in the storm. For months 
 he lay between life and death, at last to 
 recover partially only in health, and without 
 the use of his poor legs. 
 
 "Many friends have come forward with 
 help, and great London doctors have seen 
 
CH. x.] Natures Gifts. 183 
 
 and attended the boy. Till lately they gave 
 little hope, but, thank God, there has been 
 during the past year a slow but steady 
 improvement, and they now think in time 
 the boy may grow strong in health, but there 
 is no hope of his ever walking without his 
 crutches. 
 
 " Fortunately nature has bestowed many 
 gifts on the poor child that compensate him 
 somewhat for his loss first, an intensely 
 loving, unselfish nature ; and secondly, a 
 perfect voice and passionate love of music. 
 Already he is carried each Sunday to church 
 by his father, and his voice in the choir is 
 celebrated for many miles round, and has so 
 impressed the organist at the cathedral at 
 Marshford that he either comes himself, or 
 sends one of his pupils, to give the boy a 
 lesson once a week, and there is not a better 
 violinist within the bounds of the county 
 than our little Jack is. His father is so 
 
184 Studies in Rat Catching. [CH. x. 
 
 proud of the boy's gifts that I have known 
 him, when wind-bound in a harbour down the 
 coast twenty miles away, walk over the 
 whole distance on a Sunday morning and 
 back at night rather than miss carrying the 
 little fellow to church and hearing him sing 
 there. But it is eleven o'clock, and we were 
 up all last night. What, no grog? Well, 
 good night ! Come and see me when you 
 can, and come and watch the sea with me in 
 another storm, and we will see if I can't rake 
 up another story of the doings of the rough 
 heroes of our neighbourhood who go down to 
 the sea in ships. Good night, good night ! " 
 
 And so one of the pleasantest evenings 
 I had spent for a long while WPS over. 
 
 Oh, dear ! oh, dear ! What a muddle, what 
 a hodge-podge I have made of this pen work ! 
 I sat down thinking it would be quite easy to 
 write a book on " Rat-catching for the Use of 
 Schools," and I have drifted off the line here, 
 
CH. x.] What a Hodge-Podge! 185 
 
 toppled into a story there, and been as wild 
 and erratic in my goings on as even Pepper 
 would be with a dozen rats loose together in 
 a thick hedge. Well, I can't help it. I am 
 not much good at books, and ic ain't of much 
 consequence, for during the last few days I 
 have heard from half a dozen head-masters 
 of schools that they find the art of rat-catch- 
 ing is so distasteful to their scholars, and so 
 much above their intellect, and so fatiguing 
 an exercise to the youthful mind, that they 
 feel obliged to abandon the study of it and 
 replace it once more by those easier and 
 pleasanter subjects, Latin and Greek. Well, 
 I am sorry for it, very sorry. I had hoped 
 to have opened up a great career to many 
 young gentlemen, but have failed ; and I can 
 only consoK myself with thinking that one 
 can't make silk purses out of you know 
 what. Mind, in this quotation I am not 
 thinking of myself and my failure. 
 
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