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06 - 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 five of Studied 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. Study in the Art
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  Speaker 1: of Rat Catching by H. C. Barkley, Chapter five croker
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  Speaker 1: minor have you been up to the head master? Yes,
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  Speaker 1: then sit still and don't fidget. Boys, pick up your
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  Speaker 1: books on rat catching, and we will resume yesterday's task.
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  Speaker 1: The last chapter treats of a prime day's rat catching,
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  Speaker 1: where rats were numerous and known to be numerous. But
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  Speaker 1: don't suppose all days are like this, for if you do,
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  Speaker 1: you will be sadly disappointed, and you will have a
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  Speaker 1: lot to learn. For there are days, and very pleasant
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  Speaker 1: days too, when you will have to walk mile after
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  Speaker 1: mile to find a rat, and even then not be successful.
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  Speaker 1: But you will be out of doors, in the fresh air,
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  Speaker 1: with devoted companions and something fresh to see at every step.
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  Speaker 1: If you keep your eyes open, don't get disheartened, And
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  Speaker 1: above all things, never say, oh, it is no good
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  Speaker 1: looking here or looking there for a rat. There is
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  Speaker 1: sure not to be one. Come on, don't waste time.
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  Speaker 1: You often find them in the most unexpected places. I
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  Speaker 1: once went three times to the house of an old
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  Speaker 1: lady being sent for because there was a rat that
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  Speaker 1: came each night and took her hen's eggs and carried
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  Speaker 1: off young ducks and chickens. I spent hours looking for
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  Speaker 1: it in hedges, ditches, sheds, out houses and stable and
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  Speaker 1: even put Tinker up on the roof of all the buildings,
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  Speaker 1: thinking the assassin might be under the tiles. But it
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  Speaker 1: was no go. Night after night the plunderer came, and
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  Speaker 1: I began to see that the old lady did not
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  Speaker 1: think much of me. At last, one afternoon I called
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  Speaker 1: again and began up as by asking to have a
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  Speaker 1: dog that was tied up to a kennel in the
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  Speaker 1: back yard led away as his barking disturbed my dogs.
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  Speaker 1: This was done, and a minute afterwards Chance was sidling
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  Speaker 1: round the kennel, staking her reputation upon the rat being
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  Speaker 1: under it. I got out a ferret and looked round
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  Speaker 1: the kennel and was utterly disgusted to find it was
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  Speaker 1: placed firmly on hard ground, without a vestige of a hole.
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  Speaker 1: I am sorry to say I went so far as
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  Speaker 1: to sneer at Chance and tell her she did not
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  Speaker 1: know the difference between a dog and a rat. She herself,
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  Speaker 1: for a moment, seemed in doubt, but the next she
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  Speaker 1: went inside the kennel and stood at a hole in
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  Speaker 1: the plank floor. I put the ferret back in the bag,
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  Speaker 1: and taking hold of the kennel, tilted it up, and
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  Speaker 1: in an instant the dogs had a vicious looking old
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  Speaker 1: monster dead. Now the only possible way that rat could
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  Speaker 1: have got in and out of his house was by
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  Speaker 1: passing the dog as he slept, And yet the old
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  Speaker 1: lady and her gardener assured me that the dog was
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  Speaker 1: as keen as mustard after rats. I once killed a
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  Speaker 1: rat inside a church. I found it during a long sermon,
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  Speaker 1: but for the life of me, I can't remember what
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  Speaker 1: the sermon was about. I was sitting in a seat
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  Speaker 1: opposite about a score of village school children, and suddenly
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  Speaker 1: I was struck by their appearance, and the thought passed
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  Speaker 1: through my mind, how like humans are to dogs? Why
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  Speaker 1: those children looked just like my dogs when they find
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  Speaker 1: a rat, especially that flaxenhaired girl with a front tooth out.
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  Speaker 1: Then I noticed that they were all looking in one direction,
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  Speaker 1: and so I looked there too, and saw a rat
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  Speaker 1: sitting with just its nose out of a hole, which
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  Speaker 1: ran under the brick floor, apparently listening to the sermon.
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  Speaker 1: The next morning, the parson and I went to the church.
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  Speaker 1: I took one ferret and only Tinker. I chose Tinker
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  Speaker 1: because he was black and rather clerical looking. The rat
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  Speaker 1: was at home, and we had it in five minutes.
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  Speaker 1: This was one of the few times I ever did
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  Speaker 1: rat catching with my hat off, and it felt very
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  Speaker 1: queer again. I once killed a mother rat and a
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  Speaker 1: lot of young ones, which I found in the stuffing
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  Speaker 1: of a spring sofa in a spare bedroom at an
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  Speaker 1: old manor house. There were rats in the walls, and
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  Speaker 1: mary Anne had often seen a rat in the room
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  Speaker 1: when she went into dust, and it had given her
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  Speaker 1: such a turn. This time I took all the dogs
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  Speaker 1: with me, and we were followed by the lady of
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  Speaker 1: the house, four dreadfully pretty daughters, and mary Anne. Madam
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  Speaker 1: and mary Anne got on the sofa standing, and the
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  Speaker 1: four daughters stood on four chairs round the room. All
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  Speaker 1: six clasped their clothes tight round their ankles. Why, I
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  Speaker 1: could never think. This was the only time in her
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  Speaker 1: life that I ever found chance a fool directly she
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  Speaker 1: got in to the room. She wriggled and twisted, turned
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  Speaker 1: her head this way and that, threw herself on her
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  Speaker 1: back and fairly groveled. Wasp Pepper and the long tailed
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  Speaker 1: tinker were nearly as bad, and it was plain to
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  Speaker 1: see they were shy and bashful in such a gorgeous room,
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  Speaker 1: and surrounded by such a galaxy of beauty. It was
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  Speaker 1: the soft hearted Grindum who saved us. He blinked much,
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  Speaker 1: but directly, I said, high round dogs, hunt him up,
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  Speaker 1: search him out. He went to work up on the
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  Speaker 1: bed round the room, behind the furniture, and at last
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  Speaker 1: began sniffing round the sofa. I got hot all over,
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  Speaker 1: for I thought he was mistaking an aristocratic lady and
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  Speaker 1: her handmaid for rats. But no. At last he went
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  Speaker 1: under the sofa, and, turning over on his back, began
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  Speaker 1: to scratch at the under side of it up above him.
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  Speaker 1: Madame and Mary Anne jumped off, and the latter felt
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  Speaker 1: another turn. Then both took refuge on chairs and again
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  Speaker 1: clasped their clothes tight around them. I turned the sofa
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  Speaker 1: up on its back, and there, through the sacking near
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  Speaker 1: a leg, I found a nice round hole into the
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  Speaker 1: interior among the springs. I put a ferret in, and
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  Speaker 1: in a minute there was a rush and a scuffle.
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  Speaker 1: The sofa seemed alive, and then three or four small
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  Speaker 1: rats bolted out and were accounted for. Another squeak and rush,
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  Speaker 1: and out came the mother and was quickly dispatched. Then,
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  Speaker 1: as the ferret did not come out, I ripped the
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  Speaker 1: sacking and found it eating a deliciously tender young rat.
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  Speaker 1: I bagged the ferret, and while I did so, Grindum
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  Speaker 1: killed three or four small ones. I afterwards found that
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  Speaker 1: the rats had eaten through the wainscot and so got
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  Speaker 1: into the room. The rest of the afternoon was spent
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  Speaker 1: in turning over all sorts of furniture, including beds, and
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  Speaker 1: hunting through each room with the dogs, but we found
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  Speaker 1: no more rats as inside lodgers. Three or four months
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  Speaker 1: after this episode, rats swarmed in the walls of this
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  Speaker 1: same house and bilt behind the wainscotting, and my professional
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  Speaker 1: services were called in to get rid of them. How
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  Speaker 1: they got into the house I never discovered, for there
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  Speaker 1: were no holes from the outside and no creepers on
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  Speaker 1: the walls for them to mount by and get onto
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  Speaker 1: the roof. The drains did not appear to communicate with
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  Speaker 1: the inside of the house, and all the doors fitted
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  Speaker 1: tight equally puzzling, was it now that they were inside?
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  Speaker 1: To get them out? For I dare not put ferrets in,
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  Speaker 1: for fear they should kill a rat and leave it
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  Speaker 1: to decay and smell. For months, I tried various plans.
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  Speaker 1: I got a live rat, tied a ferret's bell on
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  Speaker 1: it and turned it loose, And for days after it
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  Speaker 1: was constantly heard tinkling inside the walls, But it did
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  Speaker 1: not drive the rats away. I singed the coat of
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  Speaker 1: a rat, put tar on the feet of another, and
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  Speaker 1: turned them loose, but it was no good. At last,
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  Speaker 1: I took possession of a wood house in the cellar
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  Speaker 1: down in the basement, from which a short passage led
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  Speaker 1: to other cellars, and in the wall of these there
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  Speaker 1: were many open holes. First of all, I went carefully
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  Speaker 1: over the wood cellar and made sure there were no
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  Speaker 1: holes in it, and then putting in a few faggots.
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  Speaker 1: To give shelter to any nervous young rat, I started
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  Speaker 1: each night to feed them with delicious balls of barley meal,
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  Speaker 1: which were made up with scraps. In this way I
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  Speaker 1: gave a rat's supper party each night for three weeks,
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  Speaker 1: and each morning I found clean, swept dishes. At last,
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  Speaker 1: the fatal day arrived. A string was tied to the
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  Speaker 1: handle of the door leading up into the kitchen. The
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  Speaker 1: food was placed in the dishes as usual about ten
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  Speaker 1: p m. And all the household except myself went to bed.
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  Speaker 1: I sat over the kitchen fire, reading my paper till
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  Speaker 1: a distant clock struck midnight. And then I gave a
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  Speaker 1: sharp pull to the string and heard the door bang
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  Speaker 1: to and the fastening fall, and I knew I had them.
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  Speaker 1: I lit a big glass lantern, went round to the
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  Speaker 1: stables and let out all the dogs, took them to
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  Speaker 1: the cellar window and slipped them through, quickly squeezing myself
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  Speaker 1: through after them, and shutting the window again. In half
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  Speaker 1: no time, fifty rats were killed, and all the dogs
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  Speaker 1: except Tinker pretty badly bitten, but they were used to
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  Speaker 1: that and did not care. Then I locked the back
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  Speaker 1: door behind me, taking the key home to bring back
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  Speaker 1: in the morning when I called to be paid eight
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  Speaker 1: and fourpence for my night's work. Three times in the
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  Speaker 1: next three months I went through a similar performance, and
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  Speaker 1: the first time I killed twenty eight rats. The second seven,
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  Speaker 1: and the third time only two, and these were old bachelors.
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  Speaker 1: Then every hole in the walls was filled up with
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  Speaker 1: a cement made up with broken glass. And I have
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  Speaker 1: never heard of a rat in that house since. Before
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  Speaker 1: I forget it, let me tell you that if a
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  Speaker 1: rat dies in the wall or under the floor of
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  Speaker 1: a house where it can't be got at, its whereabouts
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  Speaker 1: can be discovered in this way, provided the weather is warm.
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  Speaker 1: Take a butterfly net over to the butcher's shop, and
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  Speaker 1: there catch a dozen blue bottle flies, and, taking care
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  Speaker 1: not to hurt them, slip them into a glass jar
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  Speaker 1: and tie a rag over it. Return to the room
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  Speaker 1: where the smell is and shutting the door. After you
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  Speaker 1: let your pack of flies loose and sit down to
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  Speaker 1: watch them, And in half an hour you will find
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  Speaker 1: they are all buzzing round one spot. Have this spot
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  Speaker 1: opened out, be it wall or floor, and there the
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  Speaker 1: dead rat will be found as the bell rung. Yes,
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  Speaker 1: half a minute, put your books away Form two and
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  Speaker 1: two outside and I will take you for our usual walk.
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  Speaker 1: We will resume this task in the morning. Croker Minor,
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  Speaker 1: the top part of Jones's leg was not made to
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  Speaker 1: stick pins into If I see you do it again,
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  Speaker 1: I shall give you a rat to catch, so be careful.
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  Speaker 1: End of Chapter five,