THIEVISH PROPENSITIES OF RATS. 
83 
the old gas company were putting a gas branch into a shop, 
they fell upon a rat's-nest beneath the pavement, containing 
one yard of pack-sheet, and a letter. The letter was dated 
,a month back, with the seal unbroken, and the gas-men 
were putting the pipe into the shop of the very individual 
to whom the letter was addressed. How the letter or the 
pack- sheeting found their way into the rat's-nest is a 
mystery. 
One night, the overseer of a farm, laid his watch on 
a table in his sleeping apartment, previous to going to bed. 
Towards morning he was awoke by a crash of something 
that had fallen, and a rattling sound, as of something 
being dragged along the floor. He immediately got up, 
and found his watch was gone. He lost no time in pur- 
suing the thief, following the direction of the sound, when he 
came upon the watch at the mouth of a rat's-hole, into which 
the rat had entered, taking with him the whole of the guard- 
chain, and was only prevented from taking the watch by the 
case springing open from the fall, which made it require 
more room than the hole would admit. As it was, the rat 
did not seem disposed to lose his prize, but kept a firm hold 
of the guard, when the owner tried to pull it from him. 
Nature has her own way of accommodating herself to 
some of the most extraordinary conditions of life and being. 
A gold wedding-ring was lost by the lady of the house, who 
for some 1-eason removed it from her finger, one night after 
supper, and left it on the table. In the morning it was gone, 
and no one knew anything about it, which of course caused 
a great deal of misgiving and unhappiness. However, somJd 
three years after, as the master of the house came downstairs, 
the cat, with all the solicitude of one accustomed to be 
praised, came purring and mewing about his feet, and laid 
down close by them a large rat, from which she had eaten 
the head. The neck of the dead thing was exposed, and as 
her master stooped to caress her, his eye caught sight of 
some shining metallic substance, round the neck of the rat. 
It was a ring, completely embedded in the flesh. How 
could it get there 1 and what ring was it ? were questions 
passing though his mind. By this time another inmate of 
the house came downstairs, who having his attention directed 
to the rat's neck, proceeded carefully and scientifically to 
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