FUR-CLAD FiaHTERS. 141 



enemy.* But the rat makes some show of fight not- 

 withstanding the desperate odds against him, and 

 sometimes he "turns the tables." Now for my story. 

 Not long ago, in a comfortable old farmhouse 

 familiar to me from childhood, but one much the 

 worse for the company of rats, a weasel appeared 

 around the kitchen way, evidently seeking for some 

 ingress to the partitions. At last he found the desired 

 rat-hole, and entered. In less time than it takes to tell 

 it, there was the dickens to pay inside the walls of the 

 old house ; such desperate scrambling, rushing, squeak- 

 ing, and shrieking were never heard there before! 

 Truly speaking — 



" You heard as if an army muttered ; 

 And the muttering grew to a grumbling ; 

 And the grumbling grew to a mighty rumbling ; 

 And out of the house the rats came tumbling." 



There was grim death in the path of the destroyer for 



* " We once placed a half-domesticated ermine in an outhouse 

 infested with rats, shutting up the holes on the outside to prevent 

 their escape. The little animal soon commenced his work of de- 

 struction ; the squeaking of the rats was heard throughout the 

 day. In the evening it came out licking its mouth, and seemed 

 like a hound after a long chase, much fatigued. A board of the 

 floor was raised to enable us to ascertain the result of our experi- 

 ment, and an immense number of rats were observed, which, al- 

 though they had been killed in different parts of the building, 

 had been dragged together, forming a compact heap. The ermine, 

 then, is of immense benefit to the farmer. We are of the opinion 

 that it has been over-hated and too indiscriminately persecuted." 

 — Quadrupeds of North America, Audubon. 



