118 EYE-BEAMS 



and then gave it up, feeling as I never had 

 before the force of the old saying, that you 

 cannot catch a weasel asleep. I had made an 

 ugly hole in the hank, had handled over two or 

 three times a ton or more of earth, and was 

 apparently no nearer the weasel and his store 

 of mice than when I began. 



Then I regretted that I had broken into his 

 castle at all; that I had not contented myself 

 with coming day after day and counting his mice 

 as he carried them in, and continued my obser- 

 vation upon him each succeeding year. Now 

 the rent in his fortress could not be repaired, 

 and he would doubtless move away, as he most 

 certainly did, for his doors, which I had closed 

 with soil, remained unopened after winter had 

 set in. 



But little seems known about the intimate 

 private lives of any of our lesser wild creatures. 

 It was news to me that any of the weasels 

 lived in dens in this way, and that they stored 

 up provision against a day of need. This 

 species was probably the little ermine, eight or 

 nine inches long, with tail about five inches. 

 It was still in its summer dress of dark chest- 

 nut-brown above and whitish below. 



It was a mystery where the creature had put 

 the earth which it must have removed in dig- 

 ging its den; not a grain was to be seen any- 

 where, and yet a bushel or more must have been 

 taken out. Externally, there was not the 

 slightest sign of that curious habitation there 

 under the ground. The entrance M^as hidden 



