VI 



EYE-BEAMS 



I 



A WEASEL AND HIS DEN 



most interesting note of the season of 1893 

 relates to a weasel. One day in early No- 

 vember, 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 



