Democratic Sentinel, Volume 19, Number 21, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 31 May 1895 — WEASEL KILLS A RAT. [ARTICLE]

WEASEL KILLS A RAT.

A Battle in an Oat Bin in a Country Store in Maine. “During my recent trip to Maine,” said a commercial traveler, “I was at the store of a country merchant one morning trying to sell him a bill of goods. Happening to step into the back room, used in part as a store-house for potatoes and grain, I saw a slender little white animal running about as if perfectly at home, which I recognized as a weasel in his winter coat I threw a potato at him, which of course failed to hit and did not seem even to alarm the weasel, and coming back into the front store I spoke to the merchant about tho wild beast running at largo on his premises. “ ‘Oh, that’s all right,’ he said. ‘l'm very glad he’s taken up his quarters with me. I wouldn’t have him hurt or driven away on any account The rats have been bothering me a good deal, eating my potatoes and grain, but he'll make short work of them. They’ll never stay in any place where a weasel is.’ “We were still sitting by the stove talking when there came a loud squeaking from the back room. “ ‘l’ll bet the weasel’s caught a rat,’ cried the merchant, and we both ran back to the store-room to see what was doing there. “Surely enough, there was a hot fight on between a big rat and the weasel. The weasel had the rat cornered in a bin half filled with oats. He had evidently failed in his first attack and tho second round was about to begin. The rat was bleeding from two fine punctures in the neck, but he presented a determined front, his teeth snapping savagely at each approach of the weasel, which ran lithely to and fro watching for an opening for an attack. Neither animal apparently took any note of our presence. “The weasel’s tactics plainly were to drive the rat from the corner, and it was Interesting to watch his feints and rushes. At his close approach the rat would dart forward to snap at his elusive foe, and immediately back into his, corner again. The weasel was everywhere at once, feinting to attack him in front, running around him along the top and sides of the bin, and working to keep the rat on the move. “At last he ran down the side of the bin behind the rat as if to attack him in the rear. The rat whirled, snapped viciously at the weasel, which drew back out of reach, whereupon the rat, seeing his enemy upon one side and a clear space on the other, turned and bolted from the corner. Before he had half crossed the bin the weasel was upon him and had seized him by tho neck close to the head, his slender body hugging close to the rat’s, so that animal could not turn his head sufficiently to bite him. That took the fight out of the rodent, which rah about squealing, the weasel holding fast and sucking his blood until the rat dropped. “When quite sure that his victim was dead the weasel tried to drag him from the bin, but was not equal to the task. It was with some difficulty that we drove him from his prey, and so long as we remained in the store-room he repeatedly tried to seize the rat, which the merchant took to the front door and flung far out into a vacant lot across ths road. “ ‘lf I left the rat in the bin the weasel would bury it among the oats, after he found he couldn’t drag it away to hide,’ he said. ‘lt’s only a week that I’ve seen him round, and I’ve taken flvo rats out of that bln already.’ ” An average of eighteen suicides each day are annually recorded in Paris during the month of June; in December the average is eleven.