Uncle Dick and Lisa's Old Time Animal Tales

The leading animal dealer of this city has for some time past been in the habit of feeding his boa constrictors, ball snakes, and black snakes on white rats, rabbits and guinea pigs, animals that multiply so rapidly that this is the only means he has of disposing of those he can not sell. As a rule these animals are very cowardly and no match for the reptiles, but occasionally a rat will prove a match for his tormenters and will make things so interesting that for a time it will appear doubtful whether the snakes will make a meal of the rat or whether the rat will make a meal out of the reptile.
It is only on very rare occasions that such a thing occurs, the general run of albino rats being cowardly and weak in the extreme. One day last week the dealer when feeding one of his ophidians, gave the black snakes a guinea pig and a white rat and they lost no time in falling on them with a relish. The guinea pig was disposed of in short order, but the rat would not go down so easy. The rat fell on the snake with such a fury that the dealer was obliged to remove the rat from the cage before he killed the snake, and he was evidently trying to do so.