There are several other cunning ways of Rats which I can scarcely explain.  One must be amongst them regularly to know their wonderful ways and habits.  Yet another little incident, in conclusion, may be of interest.  I once called at a farm where they had been threshing a wheat stack.  A Rat-catcher had been there but without a dog, and when I arrived two hours afterwards my dog made a set, and commenced scratching amongst the old chaff left at the bottom of the stack, and to the astonishment of myself and the farmer I pulled out of the hole where the dog was scratching 73 live Rats!  The other Rat-catcher, who had been at the threshing all day, had caught only 14 Rats.  This will serve to show that a Rat-catcher must not be without a good dog.

And now, respecting the ways and habits of Rats I think I have given my readers interesting and varied illustrations of what I have seen and experienced during my time.

PART IV.  LIFE OF THE RAT-CATCHER.

This work will not be complete if I do not deal with the Rat-catcher’s life.  The profession is a peculiar and exciting one, but all right if pursued in the right way.  Although the calling takes one into dirty and obnoxious places, there is no reason why the Rat-catcher should not always appear respectable.  The Rat-catcher has many temptations to dishonest conducts, for instance, when Rat-catching on a farm or private estate where there are numerous rabbits and game.  It looks rather hard lines for the Rat-catcher to come off a farm with his cage full of Rats and see rabbits running about whilst he has all the requisites in his possession for catching them; and yet he must not touch one, but go home and merely reflect on what a good Sunday’s dinner he is leaving behind.  This I have experienced many a time, but I have always found even from the business view-point that the old advice still remains true, “Honesty is the best policy.”  Leaving the rabbits to themselves has always turned out to be the best, for to take a rabbit worth a shilling, and get caught in the act, means that you can never go on the same estate again.  And from that same estate you might have got 500 Rats in a year, worth four shillings a dozen.

I must also put in a good word here for the gamekeepers.  My opinion is that if you go on a keeper’s ground and do what is right, you will be able to go again, for in the whole of my experience never having carried any nets but Rat nets when on private estates, I have the consolation of knowing that I should always be welcome on going again to such estates.

Of course there are inconveniences that the Rat-catcher has to put up with.  Whatever engagements he takes in a town, the only time he can catch Rats with a good result is in the night.  On one occasion, when going round with my bull’s-eye lamp to examine the traps, I was taken for a burglar by the policeman on the beat, and he doubted me so much that he would not release me until I had shown him my cage with Rats in and my traps set all over the place.  Then he took almost as much interest in the catching of Rats as myself, and also brought in the other policemen who were outside waiting for me to attempt an escape.  Ever after that, when I had a night’s engagement in any town, I always went to the police station to tell the man on that beat where I was.