"Tim Thompson and his wife they druv home considerably worked. Tim he'd been awful mad at his wife for gittin' Phil into this scrape, or a-helping it along, but she sat kinder quiet, and, sez she, 'Tim, you'll see I did right. These men would hev torn Hardwick limb from limb if they'd ha' catched him then.' 'Wa'al,' sez Tim, 'I shouldn't ha' minded if they hed. I don't want Phil to sleep in that damp jail to-night nohow.'
"Now here's the interestin' point of this 'ere story. Crazy Nichols was the murderer after all, and they found that out three days afterwards, and they let Phil out of jail in a burnin' fever, and old Dr. Twitchell he took him up home in his own carriage, and then the Sheriff, he said, and Lawyer Edwards, he said, and Lawyer Chamberlain, he said, sez he, 'Tim, your son has served the ends of justice,' sez he, 'for if we hedn't had time to think, we should hev hanged Hardwick on circumstantial evidence. We never should hev thought of crazy Nichols.'
"Wa'al, Tim Thompson he never got over it for years. He said he didn't want his son ruined for nothing; but somehow Phil ain't ruined; he an' his mother they kinder suffered along together there for a spell of years, and then Phil got so as he could do some copyin', and Lawyer Edwards he took him in, and he kinder studied law, and now he's a forehanded man.
"I was up a-turfin' Miss Thompson's grave for him last year come fall, and he said he was a-goin' to put up a monument. Wa'al, I guess it's most done. I was in to Calhoun's a-lookin' at it, and I see the letterin'. I don't egzactly rekillect what it was, all of it; somethin' about 'Alice, beloved wife of Timothy Thompson,' but I knowed that he said down to the foot that she hed two kinds of courage, and I guess she hed, and I knew that hump-backed Phil has hed courage, several kinds of 'em, and so he looks all right to me," said Slack.
[THE WEASEL.]
The weasel is one of the prettiest and most graceful little creatures that can be imagined. It lives in all cool countries, and makes its home in hollow trees, in stone heaps, or in any convenient hole where it can find shelter. It is no larger than a good-sized rat, but has longer legs. It has a long, lithe, slender body, long neck, and dainty little head, with small round ears and bright eyes. It is covered with smooth, sleek hair, of a brown color on its back, and white below. It has long whiskers on its nose, and a very short tail. Its weapons are its strong claws and sharp teeth, which it knows how to use so well that many larger animals live in constant terror of this bold and wicked little marauder. The weasel itself has very few enemies. Even the powerful birds of prey, which are ever on the alert for rabbits and other small game, rarely swoop down on the weasel, for although they can easily carry it away in their strong talons, it often proves very troublesome booty. A hunter once noticed a large hawk, high in the air, which was flapping its wings violently, and apparently in great trouble. Suddenly it darted, and fell to the earth almost at the hunter's feet, where it lay gasping and dying, while a tiny weasel sprang from the heap of feathers, and scampered away to hide itself in the stone wall near by. On examining the bird, the hunter found that its throat was torn to pieces by the weasel's sharp teeth. The little creature, although unable to escape from the powerful grip of the hawk, had twisted itself until it could reach its enemy's throat, when it easily inflicted a deadly wound.
THE WEASEL AND HIS VICTIM.
The defenseless hares and rabbits are bitterly persecuted by the weasel, which springs upon them, and with wonderful instinct knows exactly where to fasten its sharp teeth. The unfortunate hare may scamper away as fast as it can, but its enemy clings to its neck, and the poor little animal must soon fall, faint and dying, from loss of blood. The tragedy pictured in our engraving is acted over and over again by these two pretty inhabitants of woodland thickets, and the rabbit is always forced to yield to its little enemy.