e weasel that there was a way by which he could get to the
corn-bin without the least danger, though it was close to the house, and
there he would be certain to find the mouse himself, and very likely
another Miss Mouse whom he used to meet there. At this the weasel was so
excited he could hardly wait to be shown the way, and asked the rat to
put him in the road directly; he was so hungry he did not care what he
did. Without delay the rat took him to the mouth of the hole, and told
him to stay there and listen a minute to be sure that no one was coming.
If he could not hear any footsteps, all he had to do was to rush across
the road there, only two or three yards, to the rough grass, the
dandelions, and the docks opposite. Just there there was an iron grating
made in the wall of the house to let in the air and keep the rats out;
but one of the bars had rusted off and was broken, and that was the
mouse's track to the corn-bin.

"The weasel put out his head, glanced round, saw no one, and without
waiting to listen rushed out into the roadway. In an instant the rat
pushed against a small piece of loose stone, which he kept for the
purpose, and it fell down and shut up the mouth of his hole. As the
weasel was running across the roadway suddenly one of the labourers came
round the corner with a bucket of food for the pigs. Frightened beyond
measure, the weasel hastened back to the rat's hole, but could not get
in because of the stone. Not knowing what to do, he ran round the
cart-house, where there was some grass under the wall, with the man
coming close behind him. Now it was just there that the bailiff had set
the gin for the rat, near the mouth of the drain, but the rat knew all
about it, and used the other hole.

"The grass, knowing that we wished to drive the weasel that way into the
gin, had tried to grow faster and hide the trap, but could not get on
very well because the weather was so dry. But that morning, when the rat
upset Pan's bowl of water, and it ran down the drain, some part of it
reached the roots of the grass and moistened them, then the grass shot
up quick and quite hid the trap, except one little piece. Now, seeing
the weasel rushing along in his fright, the grass was greatly excited,
but did not know what to do to hide this part, so the grass whispered to
his friend the wind to come to his help.

"This the wind was very ready to do, for this reason--he hated to smell
the decaying carcases of the poor