<h2><SPAN name="LII" id="LII"></SPAN>LII</h2>
<p class="caption">THE WEASEL</p>
<p>A chain that is blown away by the
wind and melted by the sun, links with
pairs of parallel dots the gaps of farm
fences, and winds through and along
walls and zigzag lines of rails, is likely to
be the most visible sign that you will
find in winter of one bold and persistent
little hunter's presence.</p>
<p>Still less likely are you to be aware of
it in summer or fall, even by such traces
of his passage, for he is in league with
nature to keep his secrets. When every
foot of his outdoor wandering must be
recorded she makes him as white as
the snow whereon it is imprinted, save
his beady eyes and dark tail-tip. When
summer is green and autumn gay or sad
of hue she clothes him in the brown
wherewith she makes so many of her
wild children inconspicuous.</p>
<p>Yet you may see him, now and then,<span class="pagenum">[261]</span>
in his white suit or in his brown, gliding
with lithe, almost snake-like movement
along the lower fence rails, going forth
hunting or bearing home his game, a
bird or a fat field-mouse. In a cranny of
an old lichen-scaled stone wall you may
see his bright eyes gleaming out of the
darkness, like dewdrops caught in a
spider's web, and then the brown head
thrust cautiously forth to peer curiously
at you. Then he may favor you with
the exhibition of an acrobatic feat: his
hinder paws being on the ground in the
position of standing, he twists his slender
body so that his forepaws are placed in
just the reverse position on the stone or
rail above him, and he looks upward and
backward.</p>
<p>He may be induced to favor you with
intimate and familiar acquaintance, to
take bits of meat from your hand and
even to climb to your lap and search
your pockets and suffer you to lay a
gentle hand upon him, but he has sharp
teeth wherewith to resent too great liberties.</p>
<p>While he may be almost a pet of a
household and quite a welcome visitor of<span class="pagenum">[262]</span>
rat-infested premises, he becomes one of
the worst enemies of the poultry-wife
when he is tempted to fall upon her
broods of chicks. He seems possessed
of a murderous frenzy, and slays as ruthlessly
and needlessly as a wolf or a human
game-butcher or the insatiate angler.
Neither is he the friend of the sportsman,
for he makes havoc among the
young grouse and quail and the callow
woodcock.</p>
<p>The trapper reviles him when he finds
him in his mink trap, for all the beauty
of his ermine a worthless prize drawn in
this chanceful lottery. When every one
carried his money in a purse, the weasel's
slender white skin was in favor with
country folk. This use survives only in
the command or exhortation to "draw
your weasel." When the purse was
empty, it gave the spendthrift an untimely
hint by creeping out of his
pocket. In the primest condition of his
fur he neither keeps nor puts money in
your pocket now. He is worth more to
look at, with his lithe body quick with
life, than to possess in death.<span class="pagenum">[263]</span></p>
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