n in his
ungainly figure and piebald skin. It certainly was not that he needed
the crumbs which the half-starved little Billy had stinted himself to
throw to him; but I suppose that it is possible even for rats to grow
attached to such as show them confidence and kindness. I often rallied
poor Oddity upon his melancholy after the boys had been taken away.
Bright-eyes told him that he ought to have been a cat, to sit purring on
a mat before the fire, and lick the hand of some old maiden lady, who
would feed him with porridge and milk. I said that he should be kept in
a gentleman's house, with a bell round his neck, as rats sometimes
are in Germany, to frighten their brethren away.

Oddity took all our taunts very quietly, nibbled his dinner in the
warehouse, but spent most of his time in the shed; where, as he snuffed
along the ground, and fumbled amongst the chipping and the straw, we
used to say that he was searching for little lame Billy, whom he never
would see any more.

Winter at length passed away. Down the roof of the shed, and through the
hole in it, ran little streams of water from the melted snow. The west
wind blew softly, bending the columns of smoke from the tall chimneys on
shore, and the black funnels of the steamers that went snorting and
puffing down the river.

On one of the first mild days we found poor old Furry dead in the
warehouse. Life had long been a burden to him, which his unhappy temper
rendered yet more galling.

I have heard that the rats of Newfoundland bury their comrades when they
die, laying the bodies neatly one beside another, head and heels placed
alternately together. I do not know whether this be true: it is not the
custom of rats in England. We therefore left old Furry where he lay,
close behind a barrel of salt meat, where he was discovered the next day
by one of the men of the warehouse.

Now, if there be one thing which men usually think more worthless lumber
than another, it is the body of a dead rat. Our skins are not in England
collected and valued as they are in France; the only thought is usually
how to get rid of the unpleasant presence of the dead creature. And yet,
strange to say, the porter did not throw away the body of poor old
Furry: he carried it off to his master. I was very curious indeed to
know its fate; and, after many fruitless inquiries, at length I
discovered it.

The tooth which had been Furry's torment in life, was destined to make
him famous afte