TEE BABBIT. 



scheme, with a select party of friends, all more or less gnidgo* 

 owers to the grim grey oat, posted themselves at the windows. 

 By-and-by, when all was dark and quiet, and snug, a cat-like 

 form was seen looming on the ridge of a distant washhouse. 

 Stealthily it approached ; it was the grim grey cat ! Without 

 a moment's delay it approaches the terrible trap ; as before, it 

 leaps on the stand and is presently patting the button round. 

 The door swings ajar, and simultaneously with the swing, a 

 sharp thrilling cry rends the air, the savage buU-terrier has 

 pinned the unfortunate grim grey cat by the throat; his 

 wicked career is at an end, — he is a dead cat. 



But it is not always " the cat " that robs people's rabbit- 

 hatches. The Kev. Mr. Wood, when a boy, kept some rabbits 

 in an unused stable, and from time to time the said rabbits 

 vanished mysteriously. " We had been told," says he, " that 

 cats were the delinquents— a very reasonable suggestion, as 

 the stable stood in a garden where cats swarmed at night, and 

 we therefore determined to take summary vengeance on the 

 first cat that entered the stable. We had been lately reading 

 an account of the first French Eevolntion, and had been 

 greatly impressed with the description of the guillotine. A 

 self-acting guiUotiae was consequently determined on as the 

 best method of punishing the thief. So we carefully closed 

 every entrance to the stable, merely leaving a hole in the 

 window-shutter about six inches square. Above this we sus- 

 pended a bill-hook, to the back of which was attached a brick 

 and some pieces of iron, the bill being retained in its place by 

 a slender stick that crossed the aperture. When the stick 

 was moved the bill-hook descended with great force, forming 

 an arc of a circle passing over the square aperture. On the 

 whj)le, it was not a bad piece of workmanship for three chil- 

 dren, the eldest being ten years of age. The trap was accord- 

 ingly set, and we retired for the night in great expectation of 

 discovering next morning a decapitated cat outside the window 

 and a detruncated head within. 



" Morning came, and we remained long in anxious expecta- 

 tion of the permission to rise. This given, we scampered off 

 as fast as possible to the stable, where we found the trap 

 down, several spots of blood, but no oat. On entering the 

 stable, appearances were more mysterious, for the bUl-hook was 

 covered with blood and a considerable amount of blood had run 

 down the wall, but still no cat. However, the rabbits were all 

 safe, and the cats never stole any more. The only oircomstancf" 



