them if we could; but if we were to trap all the rats on the island, it
would occupy our whole time."

"Are they, then, so numerous?" inquired Jack.

"They swarm everywhere. The poor heathens on the north side eat them,
and think them very sweet. So did my people formerly; but they do not
eat so many now, because the missionary who was last here expressed
disgust at it. The poor people asked if it was wrong to eat rats; and he
told them that it was certainly not wrong, but that the people of England
would be much disgusted were they asked to eat rats."

We had not been an hour in the house of this kind-hearted man when we
were convinced of the truth of his statement as to their numbers, for the
rats ran about the floors in dozens, and, during our meal, two men were
stationed at the table to keep them off!

"What a pity you have no cats," said Peterkin, as he aimed a blow at
another reckless intruder, and missed it.

"We would, indeed, be glad to have a few," rejoined the teacher, "but
they are difficult to be got. The hogs, we find, are very good
rat-killers, but they do not seem to be able to keep the numbers down. I
have heard that they are better than cats."

As the teacher said this, his good-natured black face was wrinkled with a
smile of merriment. Observing that I had noticed it, he said:--

"I smiled just now when I remembered the fate of the first cat that was
taken to Raratonga. This is one of the stations of the London Missionary
Society. It, like our own, is infested with rats, and a cat was brought
at last to the island. It was a large black one. On being turned loose,
instead of being content to stay among men, the cat took to the
mountains, and lived in a wild state, sometimes paying visits during the
night to the houses of the natives; some of whom, living at a distance
from the settlement, had not heard of the cat's arrival, and were
dreadfully frightened in consequence, calling it a 'monster of the deep,'
and flying in terror away from it. One night the cat, feeling a desire
for company, I suppose, took its way to the house of a chief, who had
recently been converted to Christianity, and had begun to learn to read
and pray. The chief's wife, who was sitting awake at his side while he
slept, beheld with horror two fires glistening in the doorway, and heard
with surprise a mysterious voice. Almost petrified with fear, she awoke
her husband, and began to upbraid him for forsaking his ol