Rats are marvellously cunning, they never fail to seize an opportunity
and make the best of it. They are as bold as cunning, and take
desperate risks; but no doubt they know their own powers. The cunning
and the boldness of rats are made evident when one is seen eating
the crumbs of a biscuit beside a sleeping dog. Rats soon find out
that where there is a dog in a kennel there will be food--not crumbs
only, but an assortment of bones, and many a tit-bit, despised by a
fastidious dog, from that comprehensive dish, household scraps. It
is strange to watch a rat stealing a feast within a few inches of a
sleeping terrier--the very rat for whose blood the terrier has wearied
himself by scratching at a hole for the greater part of the day. Should
the dog wake up and dash for his enemy, the rat coolly darts beneath
the kennel. It is a thousand to one against the dog catching the thief.
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