84 



NATURE-STUDY REVIEW [13:3— Mar., 1917 



And he will put the rat on the floor, and go to the other side of 

 the room and utter a peculiar call note. The rat will run over to 



him and spring 

 up on his hands. 

 "It knows me," 

 he will exclaim. 

 " It comes 

 whenever I call 

 it and follows 

 me around, 

 sometmes all 

 the way up- 

 stairs." 



"Yes," the 

 observer will 

 conclude, after 

 a period of ob- 

 servation," "It 

 does like you, 

 that's certain. 

 And it likes to 

 play. But it is a 

 rat. Rats are 

 dirty animals, 

 William." 



"Well, I guess 



they're not. 



This one washes 



itself as clean as anybody. And we clean its cage out every day." 



"But it destroys things about the house, doesn't it?" 



"Oh, no. Yes — it did once. One day it got out of its box, 



while we were away, and crept into the kitchen, and then upstairs. 



When we got home, it had eaten holes in a table cloth and in some 



white kid gloves. But they don't do that often." 



"But it would eat meat and apples and other things if it found 

 them, wouldn't it?" 



"Sure, but other animals would do that, too, wouldn't they? 

 We don't keep it in the house, anyway; we keep it in the play- 

 house. Come out and I'll show you its run-way." 



William delights to show his friends his rat's run-way. This 



William 



