50 Studies in Rat Catching, [cii. iii. 



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 



