A rat, however clever, is not an animal which I should care to pet and
tame; but I know a very interesting story of one which seemed to be the
means of taming a poor man who was so wild and miserable that he cared for
nobody. This man had been transported for life, for some of his wicked
deeds, and he was so savage that even the companions who worked with him
were afraid of him, and hardly dared speak to him.
Once, as he was at work in the woods near Port Philip, felling trees, with
a heavy chain around him lest he should escape, a rat, chased by some
boys, ran towards him, and nestled inside his shirt. There the frightened
creature lay, in its place of refuge, close to that hard heart which cared
for no fellow-man; and as the poor lonely convict felt its fluttering, a
strange feeling came over him towards the trembling thing which had thus
trusted him. He asked leave to keep it as a pet, and from that time the rat
followed its protector everywhere, faithful and loving as a dog; and from
caring for his little rescued friend, the man who had been so savage and
hard, became more gentle, and no longer needed to be chained, and kept
almost as if he had been a wild beast. There is a sad ending to this story,
for at last the rat was killed by a bough falling upon it, and its death
caused such grief to its master that he never spoke again; but I do not
know his history to the very end, and I hope that even through seeing the
gratitude and faithfulness of one of the creatures whom God had made, he
may have learnt that the God against whom he had so hardened himself was
ready to forgive and to receive him, for the sake of the Lord Jesus Christ,
who came "to seek and to save that which was lost.
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