240 
THE KAT. 
a wild-goose cliase after a bad bargain. For some minutes 
a dead silence presided over the tea-table. There sat the 
poor dog like a little criminal just taken in the fact. 
There was its master in profound thought, sipping his tea, 
and vacantly looking at nothing ; and there sat the lady 
anxiously looking first at one and then at the other alter- 
nately. At last she broke silence by inquiring where he 
got it ! In London," was the prompt reply ; " and if he had 
for one moment thought she could have felt so displeased 
with it, he never would have brought it home." She said 
it was such a little thing. " That, my dear, is one of its 
greatest beauties ; and furthermore he asked her if she was 
aware that it was one of the most valuable and finest bred 
dogs in the country, and that a hundred pounds had been 
offered by a nobleman for its sire, and refused. You may 
well feel astonished, my dear, said he, but I have seen things 
since I saw you last, which, had I not seen, I could never 
have believed. Now, would you think it possible, that that 
little creature could kill a rat T Kill a rat," she exclaimed, 
with astonishment ! " Yes, my dear, kill a rat. Then give 
him five more, and he will kill them also, and six more at 
the back of them. After that, give him another dozen, and 
he will not leave one of them alive." The lady looked per- 
fectly bewildered ; when he concluded by telling her that 
last evening he saw its father, for a round wager, destroy 
two hundred rats in less than one hour. 
This information entirely altered the lady's estimation of 
the young Tiny. She at once saw in him all the marks of 
a warrior and a hero. Tiny was instantly brought to the 
fire, and petted up with warm milk in a saucer, on the 
hearth-rug, and chewed bread and batter and sweet biscuits; 
in fact, nothing now was too good for the little champion. 
She asked her then smiling husband how much he gave for 
it ? and he whispered in her ear, " Jockeys never tell — I 
bought it for you, love ; and what it cost is no one's business 
but mine." 
As soon as the dog was warmed and fed, he began to 
fondle about his mistress ; and by his little winning ways 
stole so imperceptibly upon her affections, that in a few 
minutes he was seated in her lap, licking her hands, and 
striving all he could to lick her face. This showed a degree 
