112 ATTACK BY A WEASEL. CHAP. vn. 



hat which I had shot, and they were wrapped in wad- 

 ding. On putting up my hand to ascertain the mean- 

 ing, I got hold of a Weasel, which had been trying to 

 force its way in to the birds. I threw him away to 

 some distance amongst the grass, and went to sleep 

 again. The fellow came back in a few minutes, and 

 began the same trick. I gripped him hard this time, 

 and tossed him across the dyke * into another field, 

 but not before he had bitten my hands. I began to 

 close my eyes once more, when again the prowler 

 approached. At last despairing of peace, I left the 

 spot where I had been seated, and went into a small 

 plantation about a hundred yards off, and now, I 

 thought, I would surely get a nap in comfort. But 

 the weasel would not be refused. He had followed 

 in my track. I had scarcely closed my eyes before 

 he was at me again. He was trying to get into my 

 hat. I awoke and shoved him off. Again he tried 

 it, and again he escaped. By this time I was tho- 

 roughly awake. I was a good deal nettled at the 

 pertinacity of the brute, and yet could not help ad- 

 miring his perseverance. But, thinking it was now 

 high time to put an end to the game, instead of fall- 

 ing asleep, I kept watch. Back he came, nothing 

 daunted by his previous repulses. I suffered him to 

 go on with his operations until I found my hat about 

 to roll off. I then throttled, and eventually strangled, 



* Dyke or dike, in the North, means a stone or earth wall, not a 

 ditch, as it means in the South. 



