Rat-Hunt While I stood looking into the old man's chicken-run,
I saw a rat. It was a very large grey rat, and it came out of some stones at one end of the run, and scurried along to a coop where it vanished. The old man came along, beating about him with a stick, for he, too, had caught a glimpse of the rat. " Where'd it go ? " he asked me, belabour- ing the coop as he did so. I had to raise my voice to let him know he was " getting warm," and he immediately turned the coop up, and the rat escaped. " There it goes," he told me. I could do nothing. A drystone wall and a barrier of netting kept me out of trouble. The old man called a terrier that had squeezed in under a gate, and the two went after the rat with strong language and a great deal of yelp- ing. I stayed where I was. When the chase seemed to be at its hottest, I was amused to see the rat coming back in my direction. It looked about, and found a way of escape in the wall. I called to the old man. " We'll have him in a jiffy," he shouted, but did not wait to hear my intelligence. The rat deserved to escape. I went on up the road. The old man and his dog were enjoying themselves, for I could hear their clamour when the place was out of sight.
Previous page
