208 FIVE ACKES TOO MUCH. 



I have said that Patrick, among his other acquisi 

 tions for our second year s operations, had obtained 

 two pups and two kittens. This was with a view to 

 the extermination of the rats and mice that ate our 

 oats and danced nocturnal jigs in the partitions and 

 ceilings of the house. As Patrick explained it, he 

 wanted the dogs to catch the rats, and the cats to 

 catch the mice, which was certainly a fair division 

 of labor ; but the former evidently considered that 

 they were merely designed to carry into practice one 

 link in the story of the &quot; House that Jack Built,&quot; and 

 devoted their time mainly to worrying the latter. 

 Whether the pups would have caught rats or the kit 

 tens mice is hard to tell, as they were altogether too 

 busy worrying or being worried to devote much at 

 tention to the chase, and many was the battle waged 

 between the belligerents. The entire science of strat 

 egy could be learned from studying the conduct of 

 this feline and canine war, and I have always be 

 lieved that Grant and Lee had both gone to the cats 

 and dogs to acquire their knowledge. Felis, being 

 the weaker, retires behind her intrenchment of boxes 

 or chairs, and takes advantage of the natural defenses 

 of corners and holes, while canis, being driven to the 

 attack, exhausts his ingenuity in endeavoring to turn 

 his opponent s flank, or to inveigle her from her in- 



