324 DAN BEARD'S ANIMAL BOOK 



woods. But weasels are awful particular animals 

 about smells." 



It is easy to see that this man started out with 

 the intention of telling the truth. The incident of 

 the little dog and the weasel, the fact of its start- 

 ing the creature from under a stone, sounds too 

 natural to be fictitious: the weasel taking refuge 

 in the woodpile is just what a weasel would do 

 under those circumstances, and I have little doubt 

 that when the weasel got in the woodpile the rats 

 left it. 



Now just here there are possibilities which would 

 appeal to 



ANY MAN WITH A VIVID IMAGINATION 



so strongly that only a person of firm character 

 could resist the temptation, and it is here that our 

 friend from Union, Pennsylvania, began to depart 

 from the lines of truth. 



In reading nature stories one must use the same 

 judgment that one does in any other sort of narra- 

 tive upon any other subject. It is not necessary to 

 believe in 



ALL THE FAIRY STORIES; 



well-meaning but untrained observers tell of things 

 that (they think) they see or experiences (they 

 think) they have had. Neither is it necessary 

 to condemn these people as intentional falsifiers. 

 We all of us smile indulgently at the fisherman 

 when he- tells of the fish of gigantic proportions 

 which u got away," and only the other day a truth- 



