BOBBY COON GETS A FRIGHT
Sense and reason take to flight
In the face of sudden fright.
_Billy Mink._
Bobby Coon walked slowly down the bank of the Laughing Brook to the
little fence with the little opening in it where he knew a trap was
hidden. Bobby was not at all easy in his mind. He didn’t know much about
traps. If he had known more about them than he did, he would have been
less afraid. Looking across the Laughing Brook he could see a little
brown form bounding along the other bank in the moonlight. It was Billy
Mink. He knew that Billy was not afraid and that Billy was going to do
on that side of the Laughing Brook what he himself had agreed to do on
his side.
Bobby approached the little opening in that fence made of sticks and
studied it carefully. Billy Mink had said there was a trap there, but
look as he would Bobby couldn’t see a sign of one. Some wet, dead leaves
lay in the little opening in the fence and nothing else was to be seen.
Billy Mink had said the trap was under those leaves. Bobby wondered how
Billy Mink knew. Billy had told him that there was no danger except
right in that little opening.
Very cautiously Bobby pulled away the dead leaves that covered the
ground on his side of the little fence in front of the opening. He even
dug down into the sand a little. Presently his fingers caught on
something hard. He pulled them away as if they had been burned. Nothing
happened. Curiosity gave Bobby new courage. He dug away very carefully
the leaves and sand at that particular spot and presently he uncovered
something shiny. Anything bright and shiny always interests Bobby Coon.
Again he touched it and snatched away his paw. Nothing happened. Then
Bobby got hold of that shiny thing and pulled ever so gently. The leaves
in the little opening in the fence moved. Bobby pulled again. Those
leaves moved some more. You see, Bobby had hold of the chain of that
hidden trap.
Finding that there was nothing dangerous about the chain, Bobby
continued to pull, and presently there was the trap itself right in
front of him. He sat down and studied it. He wondered how it worked. He
was afraid of it, but he was very, very curious. There it lay with its
jaws spread wide. Bobby remembered that Billy Mink had said that there
would be no danger if he put his paw under it. Very cautiously Bobby
slipped a paw underneath. All of a sudden that trap jumped right off the
ground. There was a wicked-sounding snap, and those two jaws flew up and
came together so swiftly that Bobby didn’t really see what had happened.
He had sprung the trap.
Bobby didn’t wait to see what had happened or what was going to happen
next. He almost turned a back somersault in his hurry to get away from
that strange thing. He scurried along back up the Laughing Brook as if
he expected that trap would follow him.