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A Rat of Taste and Talent.

      A story is told of a recently deceased rat who obtained oil from a narrownecked bottle by dipping his tail therein. Then he licked the oil from his long and well-oiled tail and waxed fat. The truth of the story is certified by reputable men, and is contained in “Stories of Animal Sagacity,” a book published by S. W. Partridge & Co., of London.

     The rat had the misfortune to be born in a machine shop, where only metal was used, and there was consequently, little food for his kind. He was brought up in penury by his parents, and after he was old enough to look out for himself, gained a precarious livelihood by looking for scraps of food accidentally left around.

     I thappened that the men always kept a bottle of oil uncorked, and fastened by a wire to a certain part of the machinery. It was in constant use. One evening the thoughtful rat betook himself to a study of this bottle. It lay open temptingly before him. Its contents would make him fat and shiny, and a social leader among his companions.

     Could he not get at the oil? He scratched his head and thought harder. Then his thinking gave a brilliant result. He had a tail-what use was he making of it? This tail was an opportunity, and he had been wasting it, but now he could use it.

     Immediately he inserted the long tail as far as it would go into the narrow neck of the bottle and soaked it thoroughly in oil. Then he withdrew it and licked the oil carefully from off it. After that he repeated the same process as often as he felt hungry. A little judiciously selected wood provided the necessary solid element in this diet. He became fat and sleek and a leader among rats.

     One day he was taking a copious meal of oil when he realized that he had forgotten his hereditary caution, and that a man was watching him. The man showed no sign of attacking him, but rather a pleased curiosity, and the rat therefore stayed. The result of this meeting was that in time the rat got into the habit of taking his meals in the presence of workmen, and that to have killed so clever a creature would have been regarded as a crime. He led a happy life, and died of oil and years.

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