when that worthy domestic saw what she carried she uttered
a yell of terror instead of offering help.

"Throw it down, Miss Gwen, it'll bite you!" she shrieked. "Oh!
gracious goodness! throw it down!"

"Bring the poker! Where's Jingles?" screamed Gwen. Then, realizing
that she could hold her wriggling burden no longer, she dropped the
rat into the water-butt, and catching up the yard brush which lay
handily near, held down the victim till it was drowned.

"Miss Gwen! How did you dare!" shivered Nellie.

"Ugh! It's a hateful, horrid, barbarous thing to have to do. I feel as
if I'd committed a murder. It's made me quite sick," said Gwen.
"Nellie, do go and shut up those chickens before any more rats get
into the coop. I don't feel equal to catching another." Then she sat
down on the pump-trough to recover.

"You're a heroine!" declared Winnie when she came back from the choir
practice and viewed the interesting corpse. "I shouldn't have dared!
No, nothing in this world would have induced me to seize the creature
by its tail. It's a huge one too, with such wicked-looking teeth. What
a wonder you weren't bitten! You shall have one of those Partridge
Wyandottes for your very own. Choose whichever you like and I'll call
it yours."

"I wish you'd help me to finish my Virgil," said Gwen. "I'm only
halfway through and it's almost bedtime!"

"You're as good as a terrier, Gwen!" said Dick, when he heard the
exciting story the next Saturday. "I wish you'd come ratting in our
stable at home. I'd undertake to find you some sport."

"Don't be detestable! You talk as if I'd enjoyed it. I had to bury the
thing afterwards, for Winnie wouldn't touch it. I made a mull of my
Virgil in class next day, and I couldn't tell Miss Douglas the
reason."

"You might have put the episode into Latin. It sounds quite Homeric.
Did you keep the tail as a trophy? If we want to excite you we'll just
say 'Rats'. Please let us know when you're on the warpath again and
we'll come to see the fun;" and Dick dodged round an apple tree and
fled.

"You've got to be here early next Saturday, mind, and help us to take
things to the Agricultural Show!" Gwen shouted after him. "You may
come to breakfast if you'll behave yourself."

"Right-o! I'll act beast of burden provided it's hens I'm to
carry--not rats! Ta-ta!"

The Agricultural Show was the great event in the year at Skelwick. It
was held in the big field beside the mill, and all the villagers fo