104 Studies in Rat Catching, [ch. vi. 



window frames, and appears angry that it 

 cannot get at us, and the rain drives in fitful 

 gusts against the windows, and hisses in the 

 big wood fire on the hearth ; and as I sit in 

 my snug arm-chair, I dimly feel that the 

 external storm adds greatly to the internal 

 comfort, and then I fancy I nod off to sleep, 

 for I think no more till supper is announced, 

 and hunger and my wife stir me up to con- 

 sciousness again. 



Having finished a good supper and got 

 my pipe drawing beautifully, I remember 

 one or two things that I think the student 

 should be told. The first is, never put a 

 line on a ferret when ratting. It hampers 

 a ferret in a narrow, twisting, turning rat's 

 hole, and cutting into the soft earth at the 

 turns soon brings the ferret to a dead stop. 

 Then rats' holes are chiefly in hedge-banks, 

 which are full of roots, and the line is pretty 

 sure to get twisted round some of these, and 



