A Stealthy Weasel. 81 



your hand if you wish. The labouring people call 

 the bat ' bat-mouse.' Here also come many beetles ; 

 and sometimes on a summer's day the swallows will 

 rest from their endless flight on the dying upper 

 branches, for they too like a bough clear or nearly 

 clear of leaves. All the year through the hollow 

 tree is haunted by every kind of living creature, and 

 therefore let us hope it may yet be permitted to 

 linger awhile safe from the axe. 



The lesser roots of the elm are porous like cane, 

 and are sometimes smoked as cigars by the plough- 

 boys. The leaf of the coltsfoot, which grows so 

 luxuriously in many places and used to be regularly 

 gathered and dried by the lower classes for the pipe, 

 is now rarely used since the commoner tobaccos have 

 become universally accessible. 



Often and often, when standing in a meadow 

 gateway partly hidden by the bushes, watching the 

 woodpecker on the ant-hills, of whose eggs, too, the 

 partridges are so fond (so that a good ant year, in 

 which their nests are prolific, is also a good partridge 

 year) you may, if you are still, hear a slight faint 

 rustle in the hedge, and by-and-by a weasel will 

 steal out. Seeing you he instantly pauses, elevates 

 his head, and steadily gazes : move but your eyes and 

 he is back in the hedge ; remain quiet, still looking 



G 



