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. 



