88 Studies in Rat Catching. [ch. 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 



