| 
| 
July 1, 1309 
The Young Folks. 
NATURE STUDIES. 
Rats. 
A rat looks very much like a big 
mouse, but he is much bigger and 
stronger. He is not so timid as a incuse, 
and will sit up on his hind legs and fight 
even a cat. 
He has strong teeth, anil can gnaw 
‘very hard things, such as a wooden floor, 
BY) 
Rats have been known to vat a hole out 
of a leaden water pipe so as to get at the 
water, which they could hear flowing 
through it. 
A rat’s claws are very strong and 
sharp, and his hind claws are so made 
that he can turn them round, In this 
way he can climb head first down a rough 
wall, for ie takes hold firmly by his hind 
claws, and so prevents himself from 
falling. 
There are many kinds of rats; but one 
of the most common is the brown rat, 
which lives in barns and corn ricks. He 
does much damage to the corn, and so the 
farmer does all he can to kill him. 
Cais will kill mice, but there are not 
many cats that will even try to kill 
rats. ‘There was once a cat that would 
kill rats. She lived in a house where 
there were many of them, and killed some 
every day. 
At last the rats got tired of being 
hunted by the cat. So they left the 
house and took up their abode in some 
stables. 
But the cat followed them there. Then 
the rats turned upon the cat, and bit her 
so badly that she died. 
Some rats live in the drains, where they 
eat all kinds of rubbish. Others live on 
beard ships, and it is said that when a 
ship becomes leaky and unsafe all the rats 
leave it. 
Rats are sometimes very clever at 
getting food which has been put out of 
their way. 
A farmer used to hang up in his house 
a bottle with oilin it. Time after time 
he found the bottle empty. 
At last he watched. Then he saw a . 
rat climb down the string by which the- 
bottle was hanging, and dip its tail into 
the bottle. When the rat pulled his tail 
out it was covered with oil, which he 
licked off. By doing this many times the 
THE AUSTRALIAN GARDENER. 
cunning rat got all the-oil. 
Rats are clean in their ways, and after 
eating food they may be seen carefully 
washing their faces with their fore-paws. 
Though they are so wild and fierce they 
can easily be tamed, and soon grow to be 
very fond of their masters. 
—The ‘Second Reader.’ 
Lily’s Fright. 
Lily sat under the big, square table in 
the kitchen, drawing. pictures. She did 
not need any paper or pencil, for she had 
a nice piece of white chall, and the floor 
canvas was dark brown. 
A long time, perhaps a good half-hour, 
the tiny artiet worked away, sketching 
houses, cats, boats and trees, and girls 
with little sunshades held up straight over 
their heads. At last she rubbed them out 
with Dolly Dimple’s old dress, and drew 
abig circle. Init she made a pair of 
great, st.ring eyes, a short, fat nose and a 
wide mouth, with three teeth showing. 
It looked as if a Jack-o Lantern had been 
sitting for its portrait. 
For two or three minutes Lily looked 
soberly at her work; then she scowled at 
it. Then. suddenly dropping her chalk 
she came out ina hurry from under the 
table, her own eyes very big and round, 
and ran and hid her face in her mother’s 
lap. 
‘Why, Lily, what’s the matter, dear? 
Lily did not answer. 
‘She saw a mouse,’ said Frank, who was 
making a ‘figure-four’ trap with some 
sticks and a board, 
Lily shook her head. 
‘Lily isn’t afraid of mice,’ said her 
mother. : 
‘Little Miss Muffit sat on a 
tuffit, 
Eating curds and whey; 
There came a great spider, 
And sat down beside her, 
And frightened Miss 
away,” 
sany Charlie, teasingly, looking up ‘from 
his lesson. 
Lily shook her curls harder. 
‘A wolf or what?’ asked Frank. 
‘Tell us what frightened you, Lily. 
Don’t be foolish, dvar.’.. Mother was as 
puzzled as the boys. 
Lily raised her head and Brito to the 
picture under the table. 
This happened a good many years ago, 
and Lily paints beautiful pictures now; 
* 
Muffit 
29 
but her brothers have never forgotten 
how she frightened herself with the 
drawing that she made under the kitchen 
table. 
—‘ Scraps,’ 
Which ? 
The Violet, Pansy, and Mignonette 
Indulged in a friendly little bet 
As to which should stand at the Lily’s 
side 
/ 3 maid of honour at Hastertide. 
The Lily looked down on the lively 
scene 
With the gracious dignity of a Queen, 
And smiled across, with her calm repose, 
In the blushing face of the conscious 
Rose. 
The Rose was out of the race, you see, 
Because of her claim to royalty. 
‘Tn point of colour I am the choice,’ 
The violet said, in her sweetest voice; 
‘And in delicate perfume you'll con 
cede 
T naturally take the lead,’ 
‘Pooh, pooh!’ said the Pansy; look at 
me, 
If wealth of colour you would see,’ 
© Such modesty!’ sneered the Mignonette> 
‘I wonder who gave you that epithet! 
I may be old-fashioned and lacking in 
sheen, 
But I’m sweet, and I’ll stand by the side 
of the Queen.’ 
The Lily bent slowly her dainty white 
head; 
‘You all do me honour,’ 
said, 
‘ And, really, the claim of each one is so 
. just, 
’T would be hard to settle, 
must; 
But I think for the church I’m destined 
to be, 
So the final decision does not rest with 
me.’ 
When Easter morn came—as the Lily 
foretold— 
With a sheaf of her sisters she entered 
the fold, 
And there, by her side, in a cluster were 
set 
The Violet, Pansy, and Mignonette, 
she gracefully 
if settle I 
‘Nice-looking dog. What did you pay 
' for him?’ 
‘I got him on tick.’ 
‘Ah, a watch-dog, eh?’ 
