SNOW STORIES 57 



Then a strange thing happened. Although a rabbit 

 can run for an hour at nearly top speed, and in this 

 case had every reason to run, after a half-mile of rapid 

 circling and doubling, the trail changed and showed 

 that the rabbit was plodding along as if paralyzed. 



One of the weird and unexplained facts in nature 

 is the strange power that a weasel appears to have 

 over all the smaller animals. Many of them simply 

 give up and wait for death when they find that a 

 weasel is on their trail. A red squirrel, which could 

 easily escape through the tree-tops, sometimes be- 

 comes almost hysterical with fright, and has been 

 known to fall out of a tree-top in a perfect ecstasy of 

 terror. Even the rat, which is a cynical, practical 

 animal, with no nerves, and a bitter, brave fighter 

 when fight it must, loses its head when up against a 

 weasel. A friend of mine once saw a grim, gray old 

 fellow run squealing aloud across a road from a wood- 

 pile and plunge into a stone wall. A moment later a 

 weasel in its reddish summer coat came sniffing 

 along the rat's trail and passed within a yard of him. 



This night the rabbit, with every chance for es- 

 cape, began to run slowly and heavily, as if in a night- 

 mare, watching the while its back trail. And when 

 the weasel came in sight again, the trail stopped as 

 the rabbit crouched in the snow waiting for the end. 

 It came mercifully quick. When the weasel saw the 

 rabbit had stopped, its red eyes flamed, and with a 

 flashing spring its teeth and claws were at poor 

 bunny's throat. There was a plaintive whinnying 

 cry, and the reddened snow told the rest* 



