The Weasel

One day Grand pop said there's a weasel getting the chickens and I'm going to smoke him out of his hole. He wrapped one end of a long stick with a rag and soaked it in kerosene, he called it "coal oil".

The hole was just above the water level on the canal bank and he stuck the burning stick into it. Sure enough, a red weasel came running out of another hole further down the canal. Grand pop said that was his escape hatch. I don't know if he ever caught the weasel or not, but I never saw it again.

There were quite a few cotton mouth water moccasins around the canal locks. Sometimes we would see a dozen or more of them laying out in the sun. I don't know why we used to swim in it with all the snakes and snapper turtles that were swimming around in it.