The Mason County journal. [volume] (Shelton, W.T.) 1886-1927, 1890-05-16
THE RATS SANDWICH.
A Strictly True Story of Rodent Intelli
gAnce and Prudence.

- otIictly true SCOry Oh nOu6uG Ant0hA-
gence and Prudence.
If any one had related to us how he
had seen a rat lunching upon sand
wiches composed of crumbs and tad
poles, we can not doubt that his COM
munication would have been listened to
with more or less y-dissembled
incredulity. Yet OF that spectacle we
were ourselves witnesses not many
months ago. 1t had suggested itself to
some members of the household during
last spring to keep large shoal OF tad
poles in deep earthenware milk-pan
on windowstool, for the purpose OF
watching their evolution into frogs. For
some time that quaint process went on
swimmingly, being apparently in no
way impeded by the abnormal glaziness
and rigidity of it's subjects environment,
which, however, was judiciously miti-
gated at the bottom by a deposit of peb-
bles and mud. But, while the shrink
ing Of tails and sprouting of legs were
still in full progress, it began to be OBJ
served with pain that the number OF
tadpoles was rapidly aud steadily de-
creasing. Day by day we had to
notice very perceptible decline
in the population of our aqua
rum; there could be no doubt that in
every four-andtwenty hours certain
contingent Of tadpoles somehow vanish
ed, melted into thin air, leaving not a
wrack behind, any more than did one Of
the silvery bubbles which they were
perpetually sending up to wink out Of
existence on the surface.
Many theories were started to account
for this unhappy state of affairs, but it
was pronounced to be impossible that
as some one suggested, patches of tad.
poles, attaining to frogdom suddenly,
should have thereupon overleaped the
rim of their dwelling place; for the drop
of twenty feet, which was the only
means of quitting the windowstool,
would have been beyond the powers Of
even the maturest and most athletic
frog, and the pavement underneath
showed none of those mangled remains
which must have resulted from any such
reckless attempt. A suggestion that it
might, perhaps, take two or three tad
poles to make the frog was dismissed as
still more untenable; no plausible
priori explanation of these mysterious
disappearance had been devised, when,
one day, all hypothesis were rendered
unnecessary by ocular demonstration.
We CHANGED to look out of the win
dow; and, behold! sitting upon the rim
of the pan, brown rat, with a mild
and intelligent cast Of countenance, and
unusually large bright eyes! Upon the
surface of the water floated a large
number of the bread crumbs with which
our proteges were always kept literally
supplied. One of these fragments the
newcomer secured with a rapid sweep of
his left forepaw, while with the other,
narrowing to relate, he deity scooped
up wriggling and reluctant tadpole,
and, having thus provided himself with
the materials for his sandwich, he dis
posed of it in an incredibly short time,
and Immediately set about the capture
and manufacture of second. How
many he ate thus at that sitting we are
not in position to state accurately, as
his movements were ewilderingly IA pid
as we'll as marvelously dexterous, con-
oiNShihS WV 0AiPPOAAiiOoo d11hC VI VIC
narrow ledge upon which he balanced
himself and of the slithery prey for
which he fshed. But we can not
doubt that when be slid down
and glided unobtrusively away,
descending the creeper up which
he had climbed, the tadpoles, whom
he left gyrating in violent perturba ton
round their troubled waters, must have
lost at least dozen of their comrades
through the unerring sweep of that willy
paw, which they had not the sense to
evade by taking refuge in the inaccessi-
bic mud a the bottom of their dish. In
fact, they betrayed upon this occasion
SO marked an absence of intelligence
and presence of mind that our sympa-
thies all inclined toward the angler; and
we must own that we felt some chagrin
when. on the morrow, he fell victim to
the snares Of trap set in readiness for
him by the enraged proprietors of his
fishing grounds. For though, strictly
speaking. he was, no doubt. not justified
in devouring our tadpoles with privy
paw, STILL like ProSpero's delicate Ariel,
"a grace he had devouring;" and it was
melancholy, further, to reflect that his
accomplishment should, after our un-
comfortable human fashion, have mere
ly paved the way to his undoing. Lon.
don Illustrated News.