46 
THE RAT. 
kept awake with rats, and the nervous terror they had 
experienced, assisted by the narcotic effects of the carbonic 
acid gas tliey were inhaling beneath the clothes, there they 
lay, enfolded in each other's arms, like sleeping graces in 
a group of statuary ! Dame knocked again, when a faint 
voice said, " Come in." In she went, and oh, what a picture 
of horrors presented itself ! She shrieked out, " Oh, look'ee 
here ! whatever shall we do ? " The three girls shot up like 
a Jack-in-the-box, and sat bolt upright in bed, with their 
eyes and mouths wide open. " Dear, dear, dear !" said 
dame, whatever shall we do ? Here's this beautiful velvet 
jacket on the ground, and covered all over with dirt — we 
shall all go mad — an' there's the beautiful petticoat just as 
bad. I never saw anything so cruel in all my life — an'^ 
there's the beautiful hat thrust into the corner without its^ 
feather — but where are the Bloomers gone 
Here the two daughters, assisted by their mother, sent 
forth such shrieks of lamentation and horror, that it aroused 
the good man from his luncheon ; and as for poor Eliza, she 
fell back in hysterics. In came master : " Why, what i' the 
world's the matter Matter, John," said dame, "just 
look'ee here ; — I'll lay my life on't, 'tis those cursed rats!'" 
John scratched his head, and with a vacant gaze, said, ^' Yery 
like, very like." 
Till now, they had not noticed poor Eliza in hysterics ! 
" Dear, dear," said dame, " here's a peck o' trouble ; the poor 
child's fainted away." Downstairs she ran for some little 
antidote, and met Eliza's mother at the bottom, who had just 
arrived from London. John, in the interim, went to pick up 
the hat, and saw in it a large rat and a number of young ones. 
He roared out for his dog Boxer, and at the same time 
kicked at the hat with all his might, and knocked it into 
all manner of shapes ; when in rushed Boxer, " Hat, rat ! 
boyl" said master, urging on the dog. But it would appear 
that he had killed the old one and some of its young with 
his kicks. The dog thrust his muzzle into the hat, and 
killed the remainder, and then became so excited, that he 
seized the hat in his jaws, and shook it till it rattled again, 
when out flew all the. dead rats and pieces of ostrich-feather ; 
for the old rat had bit the feather in pieces to make a soft 
