236 THE BOOK OF A NATURALIST 
severely alone. They were no longer friends; 
they simply ignored one another’s presence in the 
room. The little ones, numbering about a dozen, 
presently came to light and were quietly removed 
by the woman’s husband, who didn’t mind _ his 
missis keeping a rat, but drew the line at one. 
The rat quickly recovered from her loss and 
was the same nice affectionate little thing she had 
always been to her mistress; then a fresh wonder 
came to light—cat and rat were fast friends once 
more! This happy state of things lasted a few 
weeks; but, as we know, the rat was married, 
though her lord and master never appeared on the 
scene, indeed, he was not wanted; and very soon 
it became plain to see that more little rats were 
coming. The rat is an exceedingly prolific creature; 
she can give a month’s start to a rabbit and beat 
her at the end by about 40 points. 
Then came the building of the nest in the same 
old corner, and when it got to the last stage and 
the rat was busily running about in search of soft 
materials for the lining, she once more made the 
discovery that those beautiful tufts of hair on her 
friend’s face were just what she wanted, and once 
more she set vigorously to work pulling the hairs 
out. Again, as on the former occasion, the cat 
tried to keep her friend off, hitting her right and 
left with her soft pads, and spitting a little, just 
to show that she didn’t like it. But the rat was 
determined to have the hairs, and the more she 
was thrown off the more bent was she on getting 
