THE POLICE OP NATURE. 
235 
and tlie dog's feet (being naturally tender from inactivity, 
and the distance and the force with which he dragged 
him over the hard roads) were completely excoriated. 
Hence the poor creature had to run on the bare flesh. 
Added to this, the dirt and gravel were so completely 
ground in, that on the day of the match, instead of being, 
like his opponent, in first-rate condition, he could not stand, 
and was forced to eat and drink lying down. However, the 
match was play or pay, and Jem's master, not being willing 
to lose without a struggle, set his wits to work, and hence 
the following stratagem. He procured a number of babies' 
socks, and having filled them with softened fuller's earth and 
oil, thrust the dog's feet into them, and carefully tied them 
round with garters ; then, when time was called, Jem was 
carried to the pit, and the instant he saw the rats, his 
courage overcame every obstacle, and, to the astonishment of 
every one, he set to work most gallantly, and never stopped 
till he had finished his task. But the pain and stiffness, 
and the entire want of all training, retarded his buoyancy 
and activity ; and hence he was behind time with his power- 
ful opponent. But another match was instantly made, to 
come off in two weeks, when Master Crib had to sustain a 
most inglorious defeat, not having the shadow of a chance. 
Thus was proved the then sounder-footed Jem's complete 
superiority over him as a rat-killer. 
His second defeat, if it could be so called, was, if possible, 
more unfair than the first ; for he was taken, as it were, off" 
the chain, and backed against a full-trained dog, to kill a 
hundred rats to his opponent's fifty, thus destroying at the 
rate of two to the otner's one ; but so near did he run the 
struggle, that no odds in money, not even a hundred to fifty, 
could induce his opponents to renew the match on the same 
conditions. In every other match he came off" victorious, 
and was, at the time of his death, the undisputed champion 
of the world. 
The dog Jem was the envy of the whole rat-killing frater- 
nity, and such was the care necessary, for fear of foul play 
(I mean theft and poison, from both of which his master 
had been more than once a sufferer), that Jem was forced to 
be kept in almost constant seclusion and confinement, and 
never went out for an airing except with his master, when 
