58 



THE RAT 



keepers had put up to catch the owls, and the cows 

 came and rubbed themselves against it, and they 

 rubbed so hard that they rubbed off a lot of hair. 



Yes, I knew that you would ask how a post can 

 catch an owl. I can't say that I like owls, but 1 did 

 think that post rather a low trick, and I fancy that 

 now even men call it 'playing the game rather 

 low,' which is their way of saying * savouring of 

 cruelty,' I suppose. No owl that ever was hatched, 

 or hawk either, can resist perching on the nice 

 smooth top of a post, especially when it is just 

 opposite some rats' holes or rabbits' burrows. 



So the keepers put a post in some such place, and 

 on the top of it a nasty round trap with iron teeth, 

 just the size of the top of the post and tied to it 

 with a chain or string. And when the owl comes 

 flying along and sees the nice tempting post, and 

 sits down on it, ' snap ' goes the trap and catches 

 him by the leg, and down tumbles the trap with the 

 owl in it, and the poor beggar hangs there for hours, 

 perhaps, before someone comes and kills him. Well, 

 it is an unkind world, and 1 don't think that men 

 seem to try very hard to help on the kindness when 

 they do such things as that. Do you, now ? Per- 

 haps you even wish that you had not asked me to 

 tell so horrid a story. Don't ask for things, then. 



