A. E. Bonser.
A Rat Hunt.
Bobbie was only a little stable lad; the only relation he ever knew was a brother, whose vocation was sweeping crossings. One day, a brougham ran over him, a crowd collected, he followed them to the hospital, and was told his brother was dead. The gentleman, whose brougham it was, came and spoke to him, and then he remembered him taking his hand and leading him to a big house. He was taken to the kitchen and well fed, and after staying there a day or two, was sent into the country.
Mr. Wake, after questioning the delicate-looking child, felt he could repay him for the loss of his brother by taking care of him.
The first thing to be done was to send him to one of his farms in the country, where kind but rough hands would do more than smoky town.
The people he lived with grew very fond of him, and treated him in every way as their own.
He had a terrier dog given to him by one of the farm hands, and this he took a great interest in. Now Floss was a good rat catcher, and as rats were most destructive in the barn, Bobbie used to take Floss up there, by the hour together, and hunt them.
One day he caught fourteen rats and mice and laid them at his little master's feet.