The good dominie--who knew his business--instantly seized upon the rat for his cue.
"'And you love the rat ?' he said to the prisoner.
"'I love it better than my life!' cried the prisoner.

'There isn't anything I wouldn't sacrifice for that rat.' "'There,' said the good dominie, wheeling on the pessimist, who was visibly subdued by the poor prisoner's love for his humble pet, 'there, you see! Here is a captive wretch whose estate is hopeless.

He wears the brand of a felon and is doomed to stone-caged solitude throughout his life.

And yet, without friends or light or liberty, with everything to sour and harden and promote the worst that's in him, he finds it in his heart to love! From those white seed which were planted by Providence in the beginning that beautiful love springs up to blossom in a dreary prison, and, for want of a nobler object, waste its tender fragrance on a rat.

It touches me to the heart!' and the good dominie watered the floor of the cell with his tears.
"The pessimist had no more to say; he murmured his contrition and declared that he had received a lesson.