It sounded as a lion fight might sound in a toy phono- 

 graph. 



Before many days passed, it was clear that some 

 of the other puppies were inclined to leave " The 

 Rat " alone, and that only two of them the two 

 biggest seemed anxious to fight him and could take 

 his bones away. The reason soon became apparent : 

 instead of wasting his breath in making a noise, or 

 wasting strength in trying to tumble the others over, 

 " The Rat " simply bit hard and hung on ; noses, ears, 

 lips, cheeks, feet and even tails all came handy to 

 him ; anything he could get hold of and hang on to 

 was good enough, and the result generally was that 

 in about half a minute the other puppy would leave 

 everything and clear off yelling, and probably holding 

 up one paw or hanging its head on one side to ease a 

 chewed ear. 



When either of the big puppies tackled the little 

 fellow the fight lasted much longer. Even if he were 

 tumbled over at once as generally happened and 

 the other one stood over him barking and growling, 

 that did not end the fight : as soon as the other chap 

 got off him he would struggle up and begin again ; 

 he would not give in. The other puppies seemed to 

 think there was some sort of rule like the ' count out ' 

 in boxing, or that once you were tumbled over you 

 ought to give up the bone ; but the odd puppy 

 apparently did not care about rules ; as far as I could 

 see, he had just one rule : " Stick to it," so it was not 

 very long before even the two big fellows gave up 

 interfering with him. The bites from his little white 

 63 



