A TALE OF A RAT.
(To TIM Enna or me " 8recraroe."1 do not know whether the following curious tale of a rat would be of interest. At a farm near here, the mistress had unpacked an old fur-lined cloak. She spread it on the floor, and put some insect-powder on it, and left it there for the night. The fur wee in two pieces, one measuring about a yard and a quarter in length, and a quarter of a yard in breadth; the other a little larger, as there was a shoulder-piece attached. The next morning when she came downstairs she found to her surprise that it was gone, and on searching about saw a portion of it sticking out of a rat-hole that was in a corner of an outer room or washhouse. It had all been drawn into the hole, but the one with the shoulder part had stuck. The other piece of fur was completely gone. Later she dis- covered that the mat at the foot of the stairs, measuring about halfea-yard in length and a quarter in breadth, which she had made herself of pieces of cloth sewn on a strong foundation, was also missing. This mat and the fur were never found again; they had been carried completely away. The hole was quite a small one, and it would have seemed an impossibility for such a small animal as a rat to have dragged such large articles through if it had not been for the evidence of the piece of fur sticking there. It was evidently a female rat col- lecting material for a nest. The farmer nailed a board over the hole, and the family were disturbed in the night by the eound of the rat prowling restlessly about in the walls of the house, which was an old one, and in the morning they found that it had nearly gnawed through the board over the hole. But next night there was no sound of it, nor did they hear It again.-1 am, Sir, dm., K. Mmes. Airington Manor,-Carisbrooke, Isle of Wight.
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