A Rat Hunt.
[Illustration]
Bobbie was only a little stable lad; the only relation he ever knew was
a brother, whose vocation was sweeping crossings. One day, a brougham
ran over him, a crowd collected, he followed them to the hospital, and
was told his brother was dead. The gentleman, whose brougham it was,
came and spoke to him, and then he remembered him taking his hand and
leading him to a big house. He was taken to the kitchen and well fed,
and after staying there a day or two, was sent into the country.
[Illustration]
Mr. Wake, after questioning the delicate-looking child, felt he could
repay him for the loss of his brother by taking care of him.
The first thing to be done was to send him to one of his farms in the
country, where kind but rough hands would do more than smoky town.
The people he lived with grew very fond of him, and treated him in every
way as their own.
He had a terrier dog given to him by one of the farm hands, and this he
took a great interest in. Now Floss was a good rat catcher, and as rats
were most destructive in the barn, Bobbie used to take Floss up there,
by the hour together, and hunt them.
One day he caught fourteen rats and mice and laid them at his little
master's feet.
On another occasion, they had been waiting some time for a rat, which
had made quite a home of three sacks of corn in a corner of the barn,
when Floss suddenly darted round and sniffed one corner, and then kept
his eyes fixed on something which Bobbie could not see. Floss moved a
little on one side, and as the rat made its intended escape, he pounced
upon it. The rat was also very sharp, and bit and scratched poor
Flossie's face; this worried him so much, that he gave it one dreadful
bite, which killed it.
Bob was very kind to animals, and took Floss to bathe his face, and
treated him quite as an invalid till his face was well.
[Illustration]
[Illustration: Worrying over his troubles.]
Nip and the Pigeons.
The children had been ill with whooping-cough, and as soon as they were
well enough they were told, to their great delight, that they were going
to stay at a farmhouse by the sea.
“Oh! Mother,” cried Gerald, “do let us take Nip with us! I am sure he
would be miserable without us.”
“I thought you would want to take him,” answered Mother, with a smile,
“so I arranged with the people at the farm that Nip should go with you!”
The children were overjoyed at hearing this, and rushed out to tell Nip,
whom they found lying in front of his kennel wondering what all the
excitement was about.
A chorus of excited voices shouted the good news to him, and he wagged
his little stump of a tail, and barked so loudly that he made almost as
much noise as the children.
A few days later they were settled at the farm, and of course were
charmed with everything, and were never tired of visiting the calves,
the ducks, the chickens, the pigeons, and the little baby pigs.
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
When the children fed the pigeons Nip had to be tied up, to his great
disgust, because the birds were afraid of him and would not peck up the
grain while he was loose. This, perhaps, was why he took a dislike to
the pigeons. “Stupid things!” he would growl. “They can do nothing but
sit and say 'Coo, coo!' all day!”
But Nip soon had good cause to change his opinion. One day the farmer
was going to market ten miles away, and knowing that he would need to
send a message back immediately, he took one of his carrier-pigeons with
him. Some hours later the pretty white bird flew down into the farmyard,
and, tied to its feathers, the children found a tiny roll of paper
containing the farmers message.
“Not so stupid, after all,” thought Nip, with a sniff, and felt a little
ashamed of himself.