CH. v.] Rats in a House. 91 



leg I found a nice round hole into the 

 interior among the springs. I put a ferret 

 in, and in a minute there was a rush and 

 scuffle, the sofa seemed alive, and then three 

 or four small rats bolted out and were 

 accounted for ; another squeak and rush, and 

 out came the mother and was quickly 

 dispatched ; then, as the ferret did not come 

 out, I ripped the sacking and found it eating 

 a deliciously tender young rat. I bagged 

 the ferret, and while I did so, Grindum killed 

 three or four small ones. I afterwards found 

 that the rats had eaten through the wain- 

 scot and so got into the room. The rest of 

 the afternoon was spent in turning over all 

 sorts of furniture, including beds, and hunting 

 through each room with the dogs ; but we 

 found no more rats as inside lodgers. 



Three or four months after this episode, 

 rats swarmed in the walls of this same house 

 and behind the wainscoting, and my pro- 



