THE SETTING OF THE TRAPS
There’s always some one setting traps
While honest folk are taking naps.
_Little Joe Otter._
The trapper had found out the things he wanted to know. He had found out
where the Otters left the water to climb up to the top of their slippery
slide. He had found out where they were in the habit of making a short
cut across from one part of the brook to another where it made a bend.
He had found certain favorite places where they brought the fish they
had caught to eat. He felt that the time now had come to set traps.
Now this trapper knew that an Otter has a keen nose and is very
suspicious. He knew that if he handled those traps with his bare hands,
Little Joe or Mrs. Joe would be likely to get the dreaded man smell and
would keep away from those traps. So he took care not to touch them with
bare hands.
He first took great care to make sure that none of the Otter family were
about. Then he set those cruel traps. One he placed in the water right
at the foot of the bank where the Otters were in the habit of climbing
out to go up to their slippery slide. He placed it in such a way that
the first Otter who tried to climb up that bank would be sure to step in
the trap.
In the short cut that Little Joe and his family had made so as not to
have to go way around the bend he placed two traps, one at each end of
the little path. He covered them lightly with snow so that they could
not be seen. Other traps were hidden in a similar way at places he knew
the Otters often visited. One trap was set right at the foot of the
slippery slide. There was no bait with any of these traps. In another
part of the brook, which he knew the Otters visited occasionally to
fish, traps were set, each baited with a fish.
“There,” said the trapper, when the last trap had been set, “if those
Otters manage to keep out of all those traps they will prove themselves
to be smarter than I think they are. This is the first day of the new
year, and unless I am greatly mistaken, one or more of those Otters will
have a New Year surprise party.”
Then the trapper hurried away. He had worked fast, for he didn’t want to
be seen. He knew that if Little Joe or Mrs. Joe should see him, they
would at once become suspicious. He was sure that he hadn’t been seen,
and all the way home he chuckled as he thought of how clever and smart
he had been. He didn’t once think of how dreadful it would be for one of
those little people in brown fur to be caught in one of those cruel
traps. All he thought about was the money that one of those brown fur
coats would bring him.
While the trapper had been so busy setting those traps, Little Joe
Otter, Mrs. Joe, and the two young Otters had been taking a nap. They
knew nothing of the trapper’s visit to the brook. They were care-free
and happy and life was very good to them.