[Cover Illustration]
[Endpapers]
Billy Mink
Books by
THORNTON W. BURGESS
_Mother West Wind Series_
Old Mother West Wind
Mother West Wind’s Children
Mother West Wind’s Animal Friends
Mother West Wind’s Neighbors
Mother West Wind “Why” Stories
Mother West Wind “How” Stories
Mother West Wind “When” Stories
Mother West Wind “Where” Stories
_Green Meadow Series_
Happy Jack
Mrs. Peter Rabbit
Bowser the Hound
Old Granny Fox
_Green Forest Series_
Lightfoot the Deer
Blacky the Crow
Whitefoot the Wood Mouse
Buster Bear’s Twins
_Smiling Pool Series_
Billy Mink
Little Joe Otter
Jerry Muskrat at Home
Longlegs the Heron
[Illustration: “Of course,” said Billy Mink, “you and I are safe
enough.”]
=BURGESS TRADE QUADDIES MARK=
=Smiling Pool Series=
=Billy Mink=
=By=
=THORNTON W. BURGESS=
=_With Illustrations by_=
=HARRISON CADY=
=[Illustration]=
=Grosset & Dunlap=
=PUBLISHERS NEW YORK=
_Copyright, 1919, 1920, 1924_,
BY THORNTON W. BURGESS
_All rights reserved_
PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
BY ARRANGEMENT WITH LITTLE, BROWN AND COMPANY
CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
I Billy Mink Becomes Suspicious. . . . 1
II Billy Finds a Trap. . . . . . . . 6
III Billy Outwits the Trapper. . . . . 11
IV Billy Finds Some Queer Fences. . . . 16
V A Moonlight Visit. . . . . . . . 21
VI Billy Warns Bobby Coon. . . . . . 26
VII Bobby and Billy Put Their Heads Together 31
VIII What Bobby Coon and Billy Mink Did. . 36
IX Bobby Coon Gets a Fright. . . . . . 41
X Billy and Bobby Warn Their Friends. . 46
XI Billy and Little Joe Decide to Go
Visiting. . . . . . . . . . 51
XII Billy Has the Wandering Foot. . . . 56
XIII Billy Makes Himself at Home. . . . . 61
XIV Billy Has Good Hunting. . . . . . 66
XV A Den of Robbers. . . . . . . . 71
XVI A Robber Meeting. . . . . . . . 76
XVII The Robbers Decide to Fight. . . . . 81
XVIII The Rats Plan to Kill Billy Mink. . . 86
XIX The Danger Signal. . . . . . . . 91
XX Why the Plans of the Rats Failed. . . 96
XXI The Rats Leave the Big Barn. . . . . 101
XXII Billy Mink’s Surprise. . . . . . . 106
XXIII Billy Hunts in Vain. . . . . . . 111
XXIV Where the Rats Were. . . . . . . 116
XXV The Farmer and His Wife Are in Despair. 120
XXVI The Rats Start a Fire. . . . . . . 124
XXVII Billy Is Discovered. . . . . . . 129
XXVIII The Farmer Guesses the Truth. . . . 134
XXIX The Farmer Makes Friends with Billy. . 139
XXX Billy Lives High. . . . . . . . 144
XXXI Billy Trails His Breakfast. . . . . 148
XXXII Billy Makes a Discovery. . . . . . 153
XXXIII The Farmer Sees a Strange Sight. . . 158
XXXIV Billy Goes Home. . . . . . . . . 162
XXXV Billy Mink Is Quick. . . . . . . 167
XXXVI A Heap of Snow Comes to Life. . . . 172
XXXVII Jumper the Hare Has a Bad Hour. . . . 177
XXXVIII Jumper Is in a Dreadful State of Mind. 182
XXXIX An Enemy Proves a Friend. . . . . . 186
XL Something Billy Mink Didn’t Know. . . 191
ILLUSTRATIONS
“Of course,” said Billy Mink, “you and
I are safe enough.”. . . . . . _Frontispiece_
Jerry Muskrat was swimming over
towards his house. . . . . . . 49
The Rats leave the big barn. . . . 105
It was plain to see that those Rats
were in a terrible fright. . . . 160
CHAPTER I
BILLY MINK BECOMES SUSPICIOUS
The stranger and the unknown must
Be always looked on with distrust.
_Billy Mink._
Of all the little people in the Green Forest there is none with sharper
eyes and keener wits than Billy Mink. Nothing goes on along the Laughing
Brook, from where it starts in the Green Forest to where it joins the
Big River, that Billy Mink doesn’t know about. Billy is a great
traveler. He is so full of life and energy that he cannot keep still
very long at a time. Moreover, Billy is one of those little people to
whom it makes no difference whether jolly, round, bright Mr. Sun is
shining or gentle Mistress Moon has taken his place up in the sky, or
the Black Shadows have wrapped everything in darkness. He takes a nap
whenever he feels sleepy. Whenever he doesn’t feel sleepy he travels
back and forth up and down the Laughing Brook.
In these little journeys back and forth nothing escapes Billy’s bright
eyes and sharp ears and keen nose. Being such a slim fellow, he slips in
and out of holes and hiding-places which no one save his cousin, Shadow
the Weasel, could get into. Now it happened that one day Billy curled up
in a hollow log under a pile of brush close to the Laughing Brook. In a
jiffy he was asleep. Right in the very middle of the pleasantest of
pleasant dreams he was awakened. Instantly he was wide awake. He was
just as wide awake as if he hadn’t been asleep at all. Without stopping
to think anything about it, he knew what had awakened him. Some one had
just passed his hiding-place.
Noiselessly Billy crept out of the hollow log and peeped from under the
pile of brush. Walking down the bank of the Laughing Brook was a man.
“I’ve never seen that fellow before,” muttered Billy to himself. “It
isn’t Farmer Brown’s boy and it isn’t Farmer Brown. He seems to be
looking for something. I wonder what he is about. I think I’ll watch
him.”
So, as silently as a shadow, Billy Mink followed the man down the
Laughing Brook, and the man didn’t once suspect it. You see, Billy can
always find a hiding-place if it be no more than a heap of brown leaves.
He just slipped from one hiding-place to another, always keeping the man
in sight.
Billy became more and more interested and inquisitive as he watched that
man. The man certainly did seem to be looking for something. He would
examine every half-sunken log in the Laughing Brook. He searched
carefully along each bank. He looked into every little hole. It didn’t
take Billy long to discover that this man seemed to be especially
interested in those places where Billy almost always went when traveling
up and down the Laughing Brook.
Billy stopped and rubbed his nose thoughtfully. He was growing
suspicious. “I wonder,” thought Billy, “if he is looking for me.”