GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS OF RATS. 
21 
found among animals of any other class, not omitting even 
the human family ; but should we at any time see a dead 
rat lying about, Ave may be almost certain that it has been 
very recently killed by some animal, trap, accident, or poison; 
but if left where it lies, the morrow's sun will seldom or never 
shine upon it. 
The most determined instance of cannibalism among rats I 
ever witnessed took place about thirty years ago, at Ware- 
side, where I was at school. The Principal was a real old 
English schoolmaster, and the very antipodes of your modern 
pedagogues. He had no idea of storing our heads at the 
expense of our healths, or sending us home at Midsummer and 
Christmas a race of upstart, pigmy, juvenile men. His prin- 
ciple was to well fill our stomachs with the solids of life, and 
then, if any vacancy remained, to eke out with reading, 
writing, and arithmetic ; but the latter only went as far as 
the rule of three — he cared nothing for anything beyond that, 
as it formed the boundary of his arithmetical knowledge ; 
and since it had served his every purpose up to a good old 
age, why, of course, it was sufficient for any one else, and 
who dared dispute with a British schoolmaster in those days? 
His terms were tolerably reasonable, and to supply his esta- 
blishment as economically as possible, he kept a farm, 
whereon he used to raise nearly everything for the school's 
consumption, as well as supply the market on Saturdays. 
The cows were wont to be brought from the farm to be 
milked in a cowhouse adjoining the play -ground ; and 
against which, on the opposite side, stood a large faggot- 
stack. Now, it was Milly the housemaid's business to 
milk these said cows. Milly was a pretty, laughing, 
dark-eyed, kind-hearted, curly-headed creature — one lor 
whom nature had done much, but education nothing; 
yet, nevertheless, her cheerful, single-hearted, innocent 
hilarity would rivet the affections even of the most serious. 
Suffice it to say, that with Milly I was an especial favourite ; 
consequently I used to come in for many little attentions and 
favours ; such, for instance, as having a good fill of new milk 
sucked through a straw when master was out. 
One afternoon, when on one of these succulent expeditions, 
I experienced two awful frights ; for scarcely had I secreted 
myself in the cowhouse when I heard the master's footsteps 
