THE WKASEL. 



83 



animal, which led him to form the opinion that 

 the fur is actually blanched. He put it on deck 

 in a cage on a very cold morning, and at the 

 end of a week it was nearly all white. But this 

 cruel experiment, after all, proves little or 

 nothing. Perhaps the whiteness was due to 

 fright, as when men's hair has turned white in a 

 single night. 



Mr. Wood quotes an excellent story of a lady 

 who took a fancy to a Weasel. The tale shows 

 how much may be done by children in taming 

 animals, if they are always tender and kind to 

 tliem. After you have heard it you will learn 

 what stupid notions ignorant people have about 

 wild animals, and what needless sufferings the 

 poor animals have to endure in consequence. 



" If I were to pour some milk into my hand," 

 says this lady, " it will drink a good deal, but if 

 I do not pay it this compliment it will scarcely 

 take a drop. When satisfied, it generally goes to 

 sleep. My chamber is the place of its residence, 

 and I have found a method of dispelling its 

 strong smell by perfumes. By day it sleeps in a 

 quilt, into which it gets by an unsewn place which 

 it has discovered on the edge ; during the night 

 it is kept in a wired box or cage, which it always 

 enters with reluctance, and leaves with pleasure. 

 If it be set at liberty before my time of rising, 

 after a thousand little playful tricks, it gets into 

 my bed, and goes to sl^ep in my hand or on my 

 bosom. If I am up first, it spends a full half- 

 liour in caressing me, playing with my fingers 

 like a little Dog, jumping on my head and on my 

 neck, and running round on my arms and body 

 with a lightness and elegance which I have never 

 found in any other animal. If I present my 

 hands at the distance of three feet, it jumps into 

 them without missing. 



" It exhibits great address and cunning to com- 

 pass its ends, and seems to disobey certain prohi- 

 bitions merely through caprice. During all its 

 actions it seems solicitous to divert and to be no- 

 ticed ; looking at every jump and at every turn 

 to see whether it be observed or not. If no notice 

 be taken of it^ gambols it ceases them immedi- 

 ately, and betakes itself to sleep, and even when 

 awakened from the soundest sleep it instantly re- 

 sumes its gaiety, and frolics about in as sprightly 

 a manner as before. It never shows any ill-hu- 

 mor, unless when confined or teased too much, 

 in which case it expresses its displeasure by a sort 

 of murmur, very different from that which it ut- 

 ters when pleased. 



" In the midst of twenty people this little ani- 

 mal distinguishes my voice, seeks me out, and 

 springs over everybody to come at me. His play 

 with me is the most lively and carressing imagin- 

 able. With his two little paws he pats me on the 

 chin, with an air and manner expressive of de- 

 light. This, and a thousand other preferences, 

 show that his attachment to me is real. When 

 he sees me dressed for going out he will not leave 

 me, and it is not without some trouble that I can 

 disengage myself from him ; he then hides him- 

 self behind a cabinet near the door, and as I pass 

 jumps upon me with so much swiftness that I 

 often can scarcely perceive him. He seems to 

 resemble a squirrel in vivacity, agility, voice, and 

 manner of murmuring. During the summer 

 he squeaks and runs about the house all the night 

 long ; but since the beginning of the cold weather 

 I have not observed this. Sometimes, when the 

 sun shines while he is playing on the bed, he 

 turns and tumbles about, and murmurs for a 

 while. 



"From his delight in drinking milk out of my 



