BAILEY 



THE WHITE RAT AS A PET 



85 



consists of strips of wood, toy ladders, clothes props and a chair, 

 all joined together as shown in the diagram. It was constructed 

 as the result of a discovery made by the lad one day while he was 

 feeding his pet. He brought it some scraps of apple, and, for 

 amusement, placed them on top of its cage. The rat, smelling 

 the apple, tried to get up to it. It had difficulty in crawling 

 over the edge of the cage but finally succeeded, and then noticing a 

 nimiber of pieces of apple, seized one of them, and dragged it to 

 the cage below. Immediately it returned for another piece. 



LcLdidutrS 



The Run-way 



By making repeated trips — and it risked a fall each time it did 

 so — ^it cleared the box of food. 



William watched it closely. Upon its last return, finding no 

 food on the box, the rat stood on its hind legs, sniffed of the air, 

 and looked appealingly toward the lad. The latter watched it 

 for awhile and then ran to the cellar for another apple. When he 

 returned the rat was in its box, eating, but hearing someone about, 

 climbed up on top of the box again. Then a happy thought came 

 to the lad. In the corner of the room stood an ironing board; 

 getting this, he placed one end of it on the top of the cage and the 

 other end on a chair; then he put a handful of apple chips on the 

 farther end of the board. 



The rat, standing on the edge of the box, sniffed of the air 



