THE POLECAT 



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favorite article on the menu. It was rare, 

 indeed, that one troubled the chickens. In the 

 dead of winter, when mice were hard to get, 



The boys decided that a young polecat would make a fine pet. 



and insects not to be found, one would some- 

 times fall from grace and kill a chicken. The 

 next night the culprit usually paid the death 

 penalty, although the Naturalist found it hard 

 to execute the sentence. On one occasion, a 

 mother with a large brood dependent upon 

 her, found life too hard, so she too took to the 



