I have known a house to be entirely cleared by it.

There were just thirty-six rats in the house, and they had a trap which held exactly twelve.

For three nights they caught a dozen, and that finished the congregation." "Aniseed is better," replied the Gipsy, solemnly.

(By the way, another and an older Gipsy afterwards told me that he used caraway-oil and the heads of dried herrings.) "And if you've got a rat, sir, anywhere in this here house, I'll bring it to you in five minutes." He did, in fact, subsequently bring the artist as models for the picture two very pretty rats, which he had quite tamed while catching them.
"But what does the picture mean, sir ?" he inquired, with curiosity.
"Once upon a time," I replied, "there was a city in Germany which was overrun with rats.

They teased the dogs and worried the cats, and bit the babies in the cradle, and licked the soup from the cook's own ladle." "There must have been an uncommon lot of them, sir," replied the tinker, gravely.
"There was.