hand in
it, and will turn round on me and spoil some of my schemes out of spite.
Besides which, I don't see why I should take much interest in the hare
or the mouse.' So, though he hunted the rabbit for us, yet he sent the
weasel this message, to take care and mind and not be too bold.

"When the weasel heard this he stopped, and thought to himself that it
was rather dangerous to go so near a house, almost under it; and yet he
could not help licking his mouth, as he remembered the sweet scent of
the rabbit's blood. But he was so very, very cunning, that he thought to
himself the rabbit would be obliged to come out again presently, and
would be sure to come up the hedge if he did not see the weasel. So the
weasel turned round to go up the hedge, and we were all in anxiety lest
the scheme should miscarry. But as the weasel was going under the elm,
the elm dropped a large dead branch, and as it came crashing down, it
fell so near the weasel as to pinch his foot, and, hearing another
branch go crack, he lost his presence of mind, turned back again, and
darted across the corner into the drain. There the scent of the rabbit
was so strong he could not help but follow it, and in a moment or two he
saw the poor creature crouched at the end where he could not pass.

"The weasel bounded forward, when the earth squeezed out a stone, and
the stone fell between the weasel and the rabbit. Before he could tell
what to do, the earth squeezed out another stone behind him and he was
caught, and could neither go forward or backward. Now we thought we had
got him, and that he must starve to death. As for the rabbit, when the
stone fell down it left a hole above, up which he scrambled into the
cow-yard, and there hid himself behind a bunch of nettles till night,
when he escaped into the field.

"Meantime the weasel in a dreadful fright was walking to and fro in his
narrow prison, gnashing his teeth with rage and terror, and calling to
all the animals and birds and insects and even to the mole (whom he
despised most of all) to help him out. He promised to be the nicest,
kindest weasel that ever was known; but it was no use, for they were all
in the secret, and overjoyed to see him on the point of perishing. There
he had to stay, and though he scratched and scratched, he could not make
any hole through the solid stone, and by-and-by he got weaker, and he
began to die. While he was dying the rat came and peeped down at him
through a chink, a