COURAGE OF THE RAT. 
99 
dog miglit have fair play. All being in readiness, and the 
servant waiting to bag the game, two ferrets ^yere turned 
into the stack, when out ran a young rat ; this he killed 
cleverly. The master called out to the servant to be quick 
and bag it ; when out popped a second, rather larger, which 
gave him some little trouble, but he succeeded in killing it 
also. The smiling servant picked it up instantly, and popped it 
into the bag with the other. Then, after a few minutes' 
pause, out stole a big fellow. At him went the dog ; but 
instead of his pinning the rat, the rat pinned him by the 
nose, and there held him till all his propensities for rat- 
killing had entirely evaporated in yells and squeals. Indeed 
they were forced to kill the rat to extricate the dog ; and 
had they not held the dog tight, he would have tried who 
was the best runner. However, not all the threatening and 
coaxing resorted to could induce the dog to look at another 
rat, except to see that it was not coming after him ; and so 
the master lost his money. 
Ferrets, like rats, vary very much, in courage. Five or 
six times have I seen ferrets so completely cowed by a rat, 
that they w^ould never after look at another ; and as for 
hunting, they would go anywhere you pleased, except into a 
rat-hole. But generally speaking, where there is no retreat, 
ferrets prove too much for ordinary rats ; though my large 
tame ferret, of which I have already spoken, w^as so com- 
pletely beaten by a single rat, that he would never after 
hunt anything. It happened, in my absence, that a neighbour 
brought a rat in a trap of his own construction, the ends of 
which came down wdth springs. It was a complicated affair; 
however, the rat was a very large one, though nothing near 
the size of the ferret ; but one of the doors, or falls, had 
caught the rat by one of its hind-feet, and there held it tight. 
My father's porter brought the old ferret, and not only put 
it in at the other end, bat shut^it in. Upon returning soon 
after, and ascertaining what had been done, I opened the 
trap, when out rushed the ferret, bleeding and completely 
beaten ; so much so, that never after would he face or hunt 
anything. The reason was obvious, for the rat having been 
caught by the hind-foot, had become so desperate, and being 
able to reach from side to side at the same time, from his 
position in the trap, he was compelled to stand fronting his 
II 2 
