Every day, when Mrs. Stoat was busy with the house work, she used to send the children out for a walk, and one day, when the children were walking in the wood, they saw two ladies coming down the path.

 

The little Stoats hid in a hole in the mossy root of a tree, and as the ladies went by, one of them said: “I wonder what fur will be worn next winter?”

 

“They say,” answered the other lady, “that nothing will be worn except——”

 

But the little Stoats could not hear what fur it was that was to be worn next winter. They did not like to think of other people wearing fur, for fear their own fur coats should be taken from them. “Oh! how cold we should be without our coats!” they said, shivering¹; but then the most sensible² Stoat said: “It can’t matter to us what big people wear! Our coats wouldn’t fit them, you know.”

 

But the smallest Stoat of all felt quite anxious to know what fur would be worn, because she was a vain little person, and felt it would be very sad if Stoat-fur coats were not the fashion.

 

So when she went home to dinner she asked Mrs. Stoat the question.

 

“Mother dear, you know everything. Do tell us what fur will be worn next winter.”

 

“Why, Stoat-fur, of course,” the Mother answered, laughing; “unless——” She stopped short and looked at Mr. Stoat, who nodded and then they both laughed, and everyone sat down to dinner. But that silly smallest Stoat of all couldn’t sleep for thinking of that “unless.” What could it mean but that perhaps some other fur would be worn? And then unfashionable! It was a dreadful³ thought. Before morning she had made up her mind to go out into the great world and find out what fur was to be worn next winter. So she said nothing to anybody, but she started off alone; and perhaps she would soon have seen how silly she was and have come running back again, but, alas⁴! she was caught in a trap, and the keeper who caught her would have killed her, only his little daughter begged so hard that the keeper agreed to spare the little creature’s life. So the smallest Stoat of all was kept in a hutch.

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