OUR FOUR-FOOTED NEIGHBORS. 309 



most domestic cats ; and no fleas or other insects are ever 

 found upon them. Our rats are commonly of the gray 

 species, which has gradually driven out the black rat. 



8. But sometimes white rats are kept as pets, and some- 

 times a variety of colors may be seen among wild rats. A 

 lady of my acquaintance once lived in a house in Boston, 

 with a stable behind it, from which a great many large 

 rats used to come into the kitchen and coal-shed. They 

 were so familiar that the cook once declared that she heard 

 ii knock at the kitchen door, and, on oj)ening it, saw a large 

 rat standing on his hind legs and looking at her, "so im- 

 pudent," as she said. Be that as it may, this lady was 

 once looking out into the yard and saw several rats drink- 

 ing by the pump. In their midst was lying (as she 

 thought) a beautiful piece of reddish fur. As she won- 

 dered how it came there, it suddenly took to its heels and 

 ran away into the stable with the other rats, and she never 

 saw it again. 



9. Eats are not easy to tame, and yet they have some- 

 times made excellent pets. The driver of a London om- 

 nibus once found in his hay-loft a young rat of a piebald 

 color, which he brought home for his children to play 

 with. The little thing soon grew tame, and was a great 

 favorite, the children naming him "Ikey," after their 

 eldest brother. He would lie before the fire at full length, 

 or run round and round after his own tail like a cat. His 

 master often carried him in his pocket, or put him in his 

 dinner-basket to guard the dinner. Ikey was always honest 

 except when there was plum-pudding in the basket, and 

 then he had not moral courage enough to resist nib- 

 bling at the plums. But if others touched the basket, Ikey 

 flew at them and drove them away. In return, his master 

 taught him to sit on his hind legs and beg, to jump through 

 a hoop, to drag a little cart, and to carry money in his 



mouth. T. W. Hifjginson. 



