d bask and sleep in the sunshine, amid
all the noise and chaffering around him, precisely like a dog. He was
about the size of a full-grown cat, and there was a bewitching beauty
about him that I could hardly resist. On another occasion, I saw a gray
fox, about two thirds grown, playing with a dog, about the same size,
and by nothing in the manners of either could you tell which was the dog
and which was the fox.

VIII

THE WEASEL

My most interesting note of the season of 1893 relates to a weasel. One
day in early November, my boy and I were sitting on a rock at the edge
of a tamarack swamp in the woods, hoping to get a glimpse of some grouse
which we knew were in the habit of feeding in the swamp. We had not sat
there very long before we heard a slight rustling in the leaves below
us, which we at once fancied was made by the cautious tread of a grouse.
(We had no gun.) Presently, through the thick brushy growth, we caught
sight of a small animal running along, that we at first took for a red
squirrel. A moment more, and it came into full view but a few yards from
us, and we saw that it was a weasel. A second glance showed that it
carried something in its mouth which, as it drew near, we saw was a
mouse or a mole of some sort. The weasel ran nimbly along, now the
length of a decayed log, then over stones and branches, pausing a moment
every three or four yards, and passed within twenty feet of us, and
disappeared behind some rocks on the bank at the edge of the swamp. "He
is carrying food into his den," I said; "let us watch him." In four or
five minutes he reappeared, coming back over the course along which he
had just passed, running over and under the same stones and down the
same decayed log, and was soon out of sight in the swamp. We had not
moved, and evidently he had not noticed us. After about six minutes we
heard the same rustle as at first, and in a moment saw the weasel coming
back with another mouse in his mouth. He kept to his former route as if
chained to it, making the same pauses and gestures, and repeating
exactly his former movements. He disappeared on our left as before, and,
after a few moments' delay, reemerged and took his course down into the
swamp again. We waited about the same length of time as before, when
back he came with another mouse. He evidently had a big crop of mice
down there amid the bogs and bushes, and he was gathering his harvest in
very industriously. We became curiou