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. 
