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04 - Studies in the Art of Rat-Catching by Henry C. Barkley · Studies in the Art of Rat-Catching

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  Speaker 1: Chapter three have Studies in the Art of Rat Catching
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  Speaker 1: by H. C. Barkley. This LibriVox recording is in the
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  Speaker 1: public domain recording by Clive Catterel. Studies in the Art
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  Speaker 1: of Rat Catching by H. C. Barkley, Chapter three. I
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  Speaker 1: am a working man, or rather have been until I
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  Speaker 1: got the rheumatics, and as such I naturally stick to
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  Speaker 1: my own class and prefer associating with those of my
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  Speaker 1: own sort. And therefore I always keep working dogs. I
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  Speaker 1: have often bred aristocratic dogs, dogs descended from great prize
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  Speaker 1: winners and with long pedigrees, and among them I have
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  Speaker 1: had some good ones, honest and true. But as a
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  Speaker 1: rule I must say my experience proves that the shorter
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  Speaker 1: the pedigree, the better the dog. And now, if I
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  Speaker 1: could get them, I should like to keep dogs that
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  Speaker 1: never had a father. Some people I know call me
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  Speaker 1: a cad, a clod, a chure Bacon, et cetera, and
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  Speaker 1: they call my dogs curs and mongrels. Such men talk
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  Speaker 1: nonsense and to be kept, specially to make speeches during
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  Speaker 1: the recess. I don't care to defend myself, but I
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  Speaker 1: must stand up for my dogs against all comers, and
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  Speaker 1: I assert boldly that nine times out of ten, a
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  Speaker 1: dog with no pedigree is worth two with a long one.
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  Speaker 1: When I get a new dog, I never ask who
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  Speaker 1: he is or who his father was, but I go
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  Speaker 1: by his looks and his performances. There are dogs, like
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  Speaker 1: men in all classes, who have either a mean, spiteful,
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  Speaker 1: vicious look or a dull, heavy, dead one. Such I
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  Speaker 1: avoid both in dog and man, for I find they
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  Speaker 1: are not worth knowing. Any other dog will do for me.
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  Speaker 1: And even now, though I don't often go ratting, I
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  Speaker 1: have as good a lot as ever stood at a hole,
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  Speaker 1: and I don't think I can do better than describe
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  Speaker 1: them as a guide to students when they come to
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  Speaker 1: getting a kennel together. First of all, I never give
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  Speaker 1: a lot of money for a dog. How can I
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  Speaker 1: with rats at tuppants each? But if I can, I
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  Speaker 1: drop on a likely looking young one about a year old,
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  Speaker 1: who was going to be put away on account of
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  Speaker 1: the tax I got the oldest I have now in
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  Speaker 1: the kennel. This way, it followed George Adams the carrier
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  Speaker 1: home one night, and to this day has never been claimed.
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  Speaker 1: And when the tax collector spoke to him about it,
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  Speaker 1: he offered it to me, and I took it and
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  Speaker 1: gave it the name of Come by Chance. But in
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  Speaker 1: the family and among friends, she is now called Chance.
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  Speaker 1: If Chance is of any family, I should think her
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  Speaker 1: mother was a setter and her father a bobtail sheep dog.
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  Speaker 1: But then I can't make out where she got her legs.
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  Speaker 1: She is red and white, with a perfect setter's head.
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  Speaker 1: She has the hind parts of a sheep dog, and
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  Speaker 1: evidently never had a tail, and her legs, which are
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  Speaker 1: very thick, would be short for a big terrier. Such
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  Speaker 1: are her looks, which certainly are not much to speak of.
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  Speaker 1: But if I had the pen of a Sir Walter Scott,
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  Speaker 1: I could not do credit to the perfection of her character.
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  Speaker 1: For seven years she has been the support of my business,
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  Speaker 1: and I can safely say she has caused the death
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  Speaker 1: of more rats than all my other dogs put together.
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  Speaker 1: I say caused, for she is slow at killing, and
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  Speaker 1: leaves this matter of detail to younger hands. If another
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  Speaker 1: dog is not near, she will catch a rat and
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  Speaker 1: even kill it. But she has a soft mouth, and
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  Speaker 1: all the other dogs, except quite the youngest, know this,
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  Speaker 1: and against the rule, will always dash in when she
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  Speaker 1: has a rat in her mouth and take it from her,
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  Speaker 1: and she gives it up without a struggle. No, her
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  Speaker 1: forty is to find a rat. She is always in
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  Speaker 1: and out up the bank, through the hedge, down the bank.
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  Speaker 1: Not a tuft of grass escapes her, and she would
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  Speaker 1: hunt down the side of Regent Street, in and out
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  Speaker 1: of the carriages if she found herself there. She lives hunting.
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  Speaker 1: Nothing ever escapes her. One sniff the deepest and most
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  Speaker 1: turned about hole is enough. If the rat is not
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  Speaker 1: in on she goes in a minute. But should it
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  Speaker 1: be ensconced deep down in the furthest corner, she stops
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  Speaker 1: at once and just turns her head round and says
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  Speaker 1: quietly to me, here's one. Then, whilst I am getting
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  Speaker 1: out a ferret over the bank, she goes in and
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  Speaker 1: out the hedge in all directions, and never fails to
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  Speaker 1: find and mark every bolt hole for the other dogs
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  Speaker 1: to stand at that belongs to the one where the
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  Speaker 1: rat is. As soon as I begin to put in
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  Speaker 1: the ferret, she will come over the hedge, give us
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  Speaker 1: off a shake, and sit down and watch the proceedings,
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  Speaker 1: not offering to take part herself, as she feels there
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  Speaker 1: are more able dogs ready and that this is not
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  Speaker 1: her strong point. Suppose a rat bolts and is killed,
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  Speaker 1: and the ferret comes out. Chance will never leave the
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  Speaker 1: hole until she has taken her sniff at it to
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  Speaker 1: make sure all the rats have been cleared out. I
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  Speaker 1: have never known her to make a mistake. If she
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  Speaker 1: says there is a rat in, there is one, without
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  Speaker 1: any doubt. If she says there is not, tis no
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  Speaker 1: good running a ferret through the hole. Should I be
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  Speaker 1: alone with no one to look out for the ferret
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  Speaker 1: when it comes out on the other side of a bank, Chance,
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  Speaker 1: without a word being said to her, will get over
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  Speaker 1: and look out, and directly the ferret appears, will come
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  Speaker 1: back to me and give a wriggle looking in the
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  Speaker 1: direction of the ferret, and then I know I must
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  Speaker 1: get over and pick it up. She has one peculiarity.
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  Speaker 1: When she followed George Adam's home seven years ago, she
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  Speaker 1: was shy and scared, but as it was a cold night, George,
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  Speaker 1: being a kind hearted fellow, invited her to step indoors,
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  Speaker 1: an invitation she accepted in a frightened sort of way.
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  Speaker 1: On the hearth sat a little girl of three years
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  Speaker 1: old eating her, and Chance doubtless feeling very hungry, came
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  Speaker 1: and sat down in front of her and watched her
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  Speaker 1: with a wistful look. The child was not afraid and
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  Speaker 1: soon began feeding the dog, who took the pieces of
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  Speaker 1: food most gently from her fingers. When the child was
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  Speaker 1: taken up to bed, Chance secretly followed, and, getting under
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  Speaker 1: the crib, slept there all night. Only once since then
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  Speaker 1: has Chance failed to sleep in that same place, and
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  Speaker 1: that was the first night I had her. She was
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  Speaker 1: shut up in the kennel and never stopped barking all night.
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  Speaker 1: Since then, she has always followed me home, eaten her
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  Speaker 1: supper at the kitchen door, and then gone off to
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  Speaker 1: her bed under the crib. Early in the morning she
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  Speaker 1: is again at my door and never goes near George's
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  Speaker 1: house till bedtime. If Chance has no tail. The next
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  Speaker 1: dog on the list, Tinker, makes up the average. He
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  Speaker 1: is a little black, hard coated dog with the head
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  Speaker 1: of a greyhound and tail of a foxhound. His head
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  Speaker 1: is nearly as long as his body, and his tail
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  Speaker 1: is just a little longer. In all ways, he is
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  Speaker 1: a proficient at rat catching, except that he has never
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  Speaker 1: been known to mark a hole where there was no rat,
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  Speaker 1: but His strong point is killing. He will stand well
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  Speaker 1: back from a hole, and it does not matter how
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  Speaker 1: many rats bolt or how fast each gets one snap
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  Speaker 1: and is dead and dropped without Tinker having moved a foot.
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  Speaker 1: I named him Tinker for a tinker gave him to
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  Speaker 1: me cause he warn't no sorter waller. Then on my
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  Speaker 1: list next comes Grindum, a mongrel bull terrier, just the
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  Speaker 1: tenderest hearted, mildest dispositioned dog that ever killed a rat.
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  Speaker 1: He has but a poor nose and is not clever.
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  Speaker 1: But he has one strong point, which he developed for
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  Speaker 1: himself without being taught. It is this. When I am
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  Speaker 1: ferreting a thick, hairy bank with a big ditch, Grindham
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  Speaker 1: always goes some ten yards off and places himself in
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  Speaker 1: the ditch and let the excitement be what it will.
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  Speaker 1: He never moves, and should a rat in the thick
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  Speaker 1: grass escape the other dogs and bolt down the ditch,
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  Speaker 1: it is a miracle if it does not die when
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  Speaker 1: it reaches him. I have better and cleverer dogs, I know,
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  Speaker 1: but I think Grindham brings in as many tuppences as
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  Speaker 1: any of them. And we are not going to part
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  Speaker 1: the way I got Grindem is quite a little history,
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  Speaker 1: and I will tell it, though if you boys like
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  Speaker 1: you can skip it and go on with a more
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  Speaker 1: serious part of your lesson. Not far from where I lived,
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  Speaker 1: there was in a most out of the way corner
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  Speaker 1: on the common, an old sand pit, and in this
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  Speaker 1: a miserable, dilapidated cottage consisting of two rooms. This for
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  Speaker 1: some years had been empty, but one fine morning was
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  Speaker 1: discovered to be inhabited by a man, his wife, and
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  Speaker 1: two children, a boy of twelve and a girl of seven,
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  Speaker 1: and a bull terrier. No one knew anything about them
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  Speaker 1: or weather had come from. And when the landlord of
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  Speaker 1: the hut went to eject them, he found them in
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  Speaker 1: such a miserable, half starved condition that he left them alone.
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  Speaker 1: Our parson called on them three times. The first time
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  Speaker 1: the wife told him they did not like strangers and
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  Speaker 1: parsons in particular. The second time the husband told him
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  Speaker 1: to clear out sharp or he would do him a mischief.
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  Speaker 1: And the third time the man took up a knife
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  Speaker 1: and began sharpening it preparatory he said, to cutting the
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  Speaker 1: parson's throat. Two months after this, the man, after sitting
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  Speaker 1: drinking in the village pothouse, all the morning, stepped round
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  Speaker 1: to an old midwife and asked her to come and
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  Speaker 1: lay out his wife. The woman went and did her
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  Speaker 1: work and said nothing at the time, but later it
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  Speaker 1: was whispered about that she had told some of her
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  Speaker 1: pals that the poor critter was black and blue, that
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  Speaker 1: it was on her mind that the husband had murdered her.
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  Speaker 1: After this, as I passed the cottage, I often saw
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  Speaker 1: the two children sitting on a log of wood outside,
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  Speaker 1: with the bull terrier sitting between them. None of the
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  Speaker 1: three ever moved out. All blinked their eyes at me
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  Speaker 1: as I passed, as if they were unaccustomed to the
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  Speaker 1: sight of a fellow creature. Two or three months passed
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  Speaker 1: during which the man was constantly drinking at the village
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  Speaker 1: public house, but he always left at sundown to look
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  Speaker 1: after the kids. He said. Then there was a poaching
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  Speaker 1: fray on a nobleman's estate near Six keepers came on
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  Speaker 1: five poachers one moonlit night. There was a hard fight,
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  Speaker 1: and at last the keepers took two of the men
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  Speaker 1: and the other three bolted, But one was recognized as
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  Speaker 1: the man from the sand pit and was wanted by
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  Speaker 1: the police. A few nights after this, I was walking
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  Speaker 1: down a lane in the dark near my house when
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  Speaker 1: the sand pit man stepped out of the hedge, leading
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  Speaker 1: his dog by a cord, and turning to me, said, ere, master,
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  Speaker 1: if you want a good dog, here is one for you.
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  Speaker 1: I am off to give myself up to the plain
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  Speaker 1: and I am going to turn Queen's evidence against my pals.
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  Speaker 1: I replied that I did not want such a dog,
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  Speaker 1: so he said, all right, then I'll cut his throat
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  Speaker 1: and then and there prepared to do so. This was
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  Speaker 1: more than I could stand, so I took the cord
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  Speaker 1: and led the dog away. But before doing so, I
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  Speaker 1: asked how about your children? He gave a short laugh
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  Speaker 1: and said they will be properly provided for. It. Afterwards
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  Speaker 1: turned out that soon after leaving me, he walked straight
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  Speaker 1: into the arms of two policemen, who saved in the
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  Speaker 1: trouble of giving himself up by taking him into custody.
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  Speaker 1: I led my new dog home and tied him up
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  Speaker 1: in the corner of an open wood shed, giving him
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  Speaker 1: a bundle of straw and a dish of bones. And
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  Speaker 1: by the starved look of him, I should say this
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  Speaker 1: was the biggest meal he had ever seen in his life.
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  Speaker 1: I sat up late that night reading, and all the
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  Speaker 1: time in a remote corner of my mind, the sand
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  Speaker 1: pit man, the two children, and the dog kept turning
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  Speaker 1: at till at last, about midnight or later. I thought
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  Speaker 1: I would go to bed, but before doing so, I
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  Speaker 1: made up my mind that I would see if my
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  Speaker 1: new dog was all right. I lit a lantern and
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  Speaker 1: stepped out of the door, and found it was blowing
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  Speaker 1: and snowing and biting cold. Mercifully I persevered and reached
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  Speaker 1: the wood shed, and what I saw there by the
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: light of my lantern did startle me. There was the
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  Speaker 1: bull dog, sure enough, lying curled up in the straw,
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  Speaker 1: blinking hard at me. But could I believe my eyes?
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  Speaker 1: There lying with him, with their arms entwined around each
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  Speaker 1: other and around the dog, were the two children from
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  Speaker 1: the sand pit, fast asleep, but looking so pale and pinched,
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  Speaker 1: I thought they must be dead. I will give place
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  Speaker 1: to no man living at ratcatching and minding dogs. But
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: here was a pretty mess, for I am no good
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  Speaker 1: with little children. So putting down my lantern, I hurried
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  Speaker 1: back to the house and got two rugs, and with
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  Speaker 1: them wrapped the children and the dog up snugly. Then
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  Speaker 1: I went in and woke up my wife, who had
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  Speaker 1: already gone to bed, and called some other women who
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  Speaker 1: were in the house, and after telling them what I
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  Speaker 1: had found, I made up a big fire in the
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  Speaker 1: kitchen and put on some water to boil. In a
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  Speaker 1: very few minutes, my wife was downstairs and battling her
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  Speaker 1: way with me off to the woodshed. I untied the
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  Speaker 1: dog and moved him away from the children. This woke
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  Speaker 1: them both, and they sat up and rubbed their eyes,
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  Speaker 1: and the poor boy appeared almost scared to death, but
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  Speaker 1: the little girl was quite quiet and only watched his
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  Speaker 1: face with a sad, careworn old look, which I pray
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  Speaker 1: I may never see on a child's face again. My
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  Speaker 1: wife is really smart with little children, and in half
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: no time she was on her knees crooning over them,
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  Speaker 1: and soon she had the girl in her arms. But
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: when I attempted to pick up the boy, he only
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  Speaker 1: screamed and struggled, and kept calling out grind Em, grind Em.
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  Speaker 1: I won't leave Grindam. I shall be killed if I
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  Speaker 1: leave Grindam. Let me stay with grind Em. I assured
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  Speaker 1: him he should not be separated from Grindam, never no more,
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  Speaker 1: and at last I partially quieted him, and he allowed
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  Speaker 1: me to carry him into the kitchen and place him
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  Speaker 1: on a stool in front of the fire with his sister,
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  Speaker 1: while his beloved Grindam sat by his side, blinking as
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  Speaker 1: if nothing unusual had taken place, and as if he
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  Speaker 1: had done the same each night for the last three
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: months and felt a little bored by it. The first
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: thing to be done, my wife said, was to feed
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  Speaker 1: the children, and while she and the other women busied
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  Speaker 1: themselves getting it ready, I sat and watched them. Both
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: were remarkably pretty, both dark, with finely cut features, big eyes,
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  Speaker 1: and thick, soft black hair, but yet in different ways,
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  Speaker 1: both had something sad about them. The boy never sat
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  Speaker 1: still for a moment, but kept glancing fearfully at me,
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: then at the women, then at the door, as if
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: he expected something dreadful to happen, and all the time
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  Speaker 1: kept grasping the arm of his little sister with one
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  Speaker 1: hand as if for protection, and clinging to the soft
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  Speaker 1: skin of Grindam's neck with the other. If he caught
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  Speaker 1: my eye, or if I spoke to him, he flinched
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  Speaker 1: as if I had struck him, and turned livid and
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  Speaker 1: tugged so hard at Grindham's skin that the poor dog's
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: eyes were pulled into mere slits through which I could
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: see he yet went on blinking at the fire. The
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: girl sat half turned round to the boy and never
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: took her eyes off his face, looking the very essence
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: of womanly pity and love. Now and then when he
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: suffered from a paroxysm of fear, she would softly stroke
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: his face, which appeared to soothe him instantly. But nothing
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: she could do could ever stop the wild, restless look
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  Speaker 1: in his eyes, or prevent his glancing about as if
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: watching for some dreadful apparition. It was a sad, sad picture,
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: made doubly striking by the utter, stolidity and indifference of
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: that awful dog, Grindom. Soon hot basins of bread and
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: milk were prepared, which both children ate ravenously, and then
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: they were put into steaming hot baths, washed, dried, combed,
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  Speaker 1: and wrapped in blankets. But when we attempted to take
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: them up to the nice, warm beds that had been
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  Speaker 1: prepared for them, there was the same wild, terrified cry
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  Speaker 1: from the boy for grind them, and to pacify him,
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  Speaker 1: the dog had to be taken upstairs with them, and
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: half an hour later, when my wife and I peeped
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  Speaker 1: into the room, we saw the two children locked in
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  Speaker 1: each other's arms, fast asleep, with Grindham curled up on
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  Speaker 1: the bed next to the boy, yet blinking horribly but
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: perfectly composed, and making himself at home. How those two
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: children found their way that night, through a blinding snow
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  Speaker 1: storm to their only living friend, the dear blinking grind
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  Speaker 1: Em I never could find out. All I could ever
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  Speaker 1: get from the boy was, oh, I always go where
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  Speaker 1: Grindham goes, And the little girl could only say Jack
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  Speaker 1: took me. My wife says angels guided them. Maybe she
• 17:02
  Speaker 1: is right, but I hardly think angels will be likely
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  Speaker 1: to go about on such a night. Still, my wife
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: went out in the snow and went to the shed
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  Speaker 1: and got out of her snug bed to do it.
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  Speaker 1: But then she put on a pea jacket and clogs,
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: and that makes a difference. This is a tiring, long
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: story to write, and I have not quite done it yet,
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: for I must finish with the sand pit man. He
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: was tried, convicted, and got three years. A year after
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: he had been in prison, he tried to escape by
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: getting over a high wall, but in doing so he
• 17:37
  Speaker 1: fell from the top and broke his back. He lingered
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: some days, and seemed to find pleasure in telling the
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  Speaker 1: prison parson of all his misdeeds, and in boasting of them.
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: There was a long list, but only the last part
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: of his story will serve for the use of schools.
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: It appears from what he said that after he had
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: given me the dog, he had intended to steal back
• 17:59
  Speaker 1: to his house and take the two children to a
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: deep pond, and there drown them. Then, free from family ties,
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: he hoped to get away and hip himself off to America.
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: He also said that in a fit of rage, he
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: had thrashed his wife to death with his fists, and
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: that his boy, from having seen him do it, had
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: gone mad with fear, and was so bad, especially at night,
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: that if he had not got a bull dog sleeping
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: with him as a sort of friend, he would go
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: into a fit with fear, and was often unconscious for hours.
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: It was an ugly story, and I am glad to
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: say with the death of the sand pit man, the
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: miserable part of the children's life ended. The girl is
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: now twelve years old and has never left us. She
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: is as sharp as a needle, and as honest as
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: old chance, and as good She is having a good
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: education thanks to our rector's wife, and could, if need be,
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: earn her own livelihood. But we are not ever going
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: to part with her. The boy Jack was great trouble
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: to us at first. For months he would not be
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: parted for a moment, day or night from Grindham, and
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: the dog actually had to go to school with him.
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: But the master utterly failed to teach the boy even
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: as far as a B C in his alphabet, and
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: the dog not to blink. And so one fine day
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: I had both returned on my hands as hopeless ignoramuses.
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: I could not keep a blinking dog at home in idleness,
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: so I took him with me ratting, and as Jack
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: would not be parted from the dog, he had to
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: come too. Every One says the boy is cracked, he
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: is queer. I will allow, but if you will find
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: me a better hand at rap catching in all its branches,
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: I should like to look at him. And besides, if
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: Jack is cracked, then I like cracked boys. For I
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: never came across one more obedient, more truthful, or more
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: steady and I find him a perfect treasure on the
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: other side of the bank at the bolt holes. Jack
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: never mentions the past, and I should be inclined to
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: think he had forgotten it. Only if he has parted
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: from grind Him for a short time. He becomes wild,
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: looking about the eyes again and restless. At such times,
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: his sister, who mothers him much, will sit by him
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: and stroke his face softly, when he will quickly recover himself.
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: I don't know what will happen when Grindham blinks his last,
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: but the boy begins to follow me about and seems
• 20:32
  Speaker 1: to cling to me. And by that time I hope
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: I shall be so well liked by him that I
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: may take Grindam's place. Just two more words about Grindham
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: than I have done. One is that the first time
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: Grindham caught a rat, he picked it up by its
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: hind leg, and the rat made its teeth meet through
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: his nose. He softly put the rat down, and it escaped.
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: And I made my sides ache and greatly astonished all
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: the other dogs by laughing at this great softime beast,
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: as he sat on his haunches, licking the blood as
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: it trickled from his nose and staring up into the
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: sky with a far off, vacant look, blinking worse than ever.
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: The other word is this, Though Grindham is a bulldog
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: with an awful crush your bones, tear your flesh, look,
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: he is just the gentlest hearted beast out. And there
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: is not a puppy in the kennel, nor a child
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: in the village who does not know this and impose
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: upon him shamefully. Only last Sunday I had to stop
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: a small child of five from driving off in a
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: four wheeled cart using Grindham as a horse. Once, and
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: once only, Grindham showed his temper. A big lout in
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: the village threw a stone at him. Grindham only blinked,
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: but Jack saw it and hit the lout, who, being
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: twice Jack's size, turned upon him and knocked him down.
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: In half a minute, Grindham's teeth had met three times
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: in the lout's calves, and his trousers required reseating, and
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: in three quarters of a minute Grindon was sitting down
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: with a bland expression of countenance, blinking with both eyes
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: at the sky. Now, to continue my lesson on ratting dogs,
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: I have two others Pepper and Wasp, one a badly
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: bred Spaniel, the other a terrier of doubtful parentage. They
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: are both nice, cheerful young dogs that it is a
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: pleasure to see either at play or work. But they
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: are yet young and too apt to get excited and wild.
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: They will, when a rat is out of his hole
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: in a hedge, dash up and down the entire length
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: of the field, making enormous jumps in the air, during
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: which time they listen, keen for the rustle of the
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: rat in the grass. And once, but only once, Pepper
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: gave a yap when so rushing about, But I spoke
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: to him so severely about this disgustingly low habit that
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: he has never done it again. Wasp is specially good
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: at water, and I have taught her to come to
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: me directly a rat is bolted with a plunging into
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: a pond, that I carry her high up in my
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: arms round the pond, and when the rat approaches the side, Wasp,
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: from her high vantage ground, will dive down upon it
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: and have it in an instant. Both dogs are quick killers,
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: and will I am sure in time be perfect. But
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: as yet I do not think myself justified in putting
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: them into a higher class with dogs such as Chance
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: and Tinker. There that is all for to day, young gentlemen,
• 23:28
  Speaker 1: resume your cicero, and while you are preparing it, I
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: will go to my room and look over the impositions
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: I set yesterday. It is understood that for look over
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: impositions we may read smoke Cavendish in a short black pipe,
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: end of Chapter three,