132 A GAMEKEEPER'S NOTE-BOOK 



was to be his home some days in advance of 

 his wife, taking bread, a ten-pound cheese, and a 



cask of beer, on which to subsist until the 

 of Rats more luxurious days of his wife's coming. 



Having found that the outgoing keeper had 

 carried off the front-door key, he brought his most 

 valuable possessions into his bedroom, including 

 the bread, cheese, and beer. Thoroughly tired with 

 his journey and his unpacking, he slept so. well 

 through the first night that some mysterious sounds, 

 as in a dream, failed to rouse him. On awakening, 

 he discovered that rats had paid a call, and had eaten 

 every particle of the bread and of the ten-pound 

 cheese. They had even assaulted the bung of the 

 beer-barrel, happily for them and for the keeper 

 without success. During the first three months of 

 his residence this keeper killed no fewer than 600 

 rats in and about his old-fashioned cottage. 



Thinking of the rats who assaulted the beer- 

 barrel reminds us of the story of a clever rat that 

 drank from a wine-bottle by first inserting, then 

 licking, his tail. Rats are so cunning that one can 

 believe almost anything told of them. They suffer, 

 at times, terribly from thirst. There is no doubt 

 that a dry breeding season means a small crop of rats, 

 which seems to support the theory that when hard 

 pressed by thirst larger rats kill the little ones for 

 the sake of their blood. When feeding on corn, in 

 ricks or barns, a spell of rainless weather means 

 much suffering, even if dews compensate in some 



