40 
THE RAT. 
sight. I may say with truth, that Jacko has adopted it as 
his own, for he nurses and fondles over it just as a mother 
would over her child, and the rat is perfectly conscious of 
the attachment, and is quite attached to the monkey ; so 
that let the monkey handle it how he may — which some- 
times seemed rather roughly — yet the rat never bites him. 
But, in. order to show me the sagacity of the monkey, his 
master gave him a biscuit, and bade him feed his baby. He 
immediately caught his favourite, and, placing it in his lap,, 
gave it a piece, and then had a mouthful himself ; yet he 
had a great objection to the rat having more than its share, 
which, to tell the truth, was sometimes a very small one. 
I have watched this Happy Family for hours together, 
and all is one unchequered scene of harmony, except now 
and then, when the monkey, who is king of the colony, is 
taken with fits of mischief For instance, when they are all 
embedded in one corner, and fast asleep, he becomes lonely 
and unhappy. Down he will jump, and, like a peevish old 
bachelor, in the bottom of a lumber-cupboard, seeking his> 
lost slipper, he commences groping about for his favourite ; 
and, should he not at once meet with it, he shows his royal 
indignation by seizing the kittens, rats, ferret, and guinea- 
pigs by their heads, tails, backs, or bellies. Away he sends, 
them, right and leffc, flying in all directions to the other end 
of the cage ; but when he finds his favourite his anger 
ceases. Indeed he is never quiet. Sometimes he will roll 
his pet on its back, and, with all the anxiety of an affec- 
tionate parent, will turn up the fur with one hand, and 
catch the fleas with the other, — a job he is very fond of^ 
and to which parental solicitude the rat yields with all 
the complacency of a little fat baby. There is no trouble 
in finding out which is the monkey's favourite, for its fur 
is all turned the wrong way with rough nursing, which 
makes it look more like a little white hedgehog than a rat. 
At other times his grotesque majesty wdll take an instanta- 
neous tour through his dominions. Away he flies, with the 
rapidity of lightning, all over the cage ; and then, bounding 
from side to side, wantonly sweeps the perches as he passes, 
upsetting hawks, owls, jackdaws,, magpies, starlings, and 
pigeons, and pitching all the animals that come in his way 
up to the ceiling ; so that, with the fluttering of birds, and 
