PREDATORY HABITS OF THE RAT. 
73 
culation and experience ; and as to the improvement of the 
wild breed, that was a matter he should like to hear discussed, 
since there was no question but that it would be most 
desirable, if practicable. 
This latter remark v/as just the thing I wanted. To 
work I went, by first assuring him that I knew by expe- 
rience, that if a litter of young tame rabbits be allowed 
to run at large without molestation, they will soon 
become wild and hardy, and burrow and run as fast as 
the best of the common wild breed ; and if he would only 
buy me five does and one buck, and give me the range of 
the cellars, I could, in six months, prove the thing to a 
demonstration ; and, at the end of three years, supply half 
the warrens in England with large wild-stock rabbits. He 
now clearly saw the object I was aiming at, which was 
to have half a dozen rabbits for my fancy, and the cellars to 
I keep them in. My father then set to work to raise up one 
objection after the other, which I as quickly cramped or 
reasoned away with all the earnestness of a poor barrister 
whose scanty means will not allow him to lose his case. 
Then came the most weighty of all his objections — the 
amount of money it would cost to keep them. Upon this 
subject I was armed to the very teeth with calculations, in 
black and white, and from which there was no flinching. 
I ran through the prices of all the various foods, the quantity 
it would take each week to keep them, and so on, for six 
months ; then the average number of young they would 
have, and the expense it would cost to keep them till they 
were three months old, and then the price they would fetch 
at the poulterers ; proving thereby the immense interest 
that must of necessity accrue from so profitable a specula- 
tion, all of which would come into his own pocket, since I 
did not desire one farthing for myself. I then finished by 
observing that, in addition to all these vast profits, at the 
end of eighteen months I could supply the table with fat 
rabbits for the whole family, from two to three days a week, 
the whole year round. 
After a hearty and good-humoured laugh, he said, Well, 
well, Jem, my boy ; I'll see what I can do." That was 
enough — the victory was mine, — for his bare word was at all 
