WHEN THE DOG'S ASLEEP 131 



national reputation for thrift by using the feathers 

 as nibs for writing. But we suspect he did more 

 woodcock shooting than quill-driving. 



Rats are marvellously cunning, they never fail to 

 seize an opportunity and make the best of it. They 



are as bold as cunning, and take desperate 

 When the r j s ks ; but no doubt they know their own 

 Asleep powers. The cunning and the boldness of 



rats are made evident when one is seen 

 eating the crumbs of a biscuit beside a sleep- 

 ing dog. Rats soon find out that where there is 

 a dog in a kennel there will be food not crumbs 

 only, but an assortment of bones, and many a tit- 

 bit, despised by a fastidious dog, from that com- 

 prehensive dish, household scraps. It is strange to 

 watch a rat stealing a feast within a few inches of a 

 sleeping terrier the very rat for whose blood the 

 terrier has wearied himself by scratching at a hole 

 for the greater part of the day. Should the dog 

 wake up and dash for his enemy, the rat coolly 

 darts beneath the kennel. It is a thousand to one 

 against the dog catching the thief. 



Keepers as a class have no love for rats ; but there 

 is one keeper who regards all rats with the deadliest 

 loathing, on account of a little experience. He had 

 taken a new berth, and arrived at the cottage which 



