BILLY MINK’S SURPRISE
A cause there is that will explain
A mystery, and make it plain.
_Billy Mink._
Billy Mink opened his eyes. At first he couldn’t think where he was.
Everything about him was strange. Then, all in a flash, it came to him
where he was. He was in a dark corner of the haymow in the big barn
where the Rats lived.
Billy yawned. Then he stretched one leg and then another. He yawned
again, stretched some more, then lay quiet for a few minutes, trying to
decide whether to take another nap or hunt those Rats again.
“I may as well learn all about this barn while I am here,” thought
Billy. “One never knows when such knowledge may come in very handy.
Besides, I want to find out where all these Rats live. How they did
squeal and squeak, when they discovered me!” Billy chuckled at the
memory. “It is great fun to hunt them.”
Billy lazily got to his feet and arched his back, which was one way of
stretching. Then he started out to explore the big barn. Of course he
didn’t go far before he smelled a Rat. That is to say, he smelled the
scent left by the feet of a Rat. Right away Billy forgot everything but
the fun of hunting, the game of hide-and-seek in which death was the
price of being caught. He started out along the trail of that Rat. By
and by, way down under some boxes, he came to a nest. It was made of old
rags, torn paper, and other bits of rubbish. Billy didn’t knock to find
out if any one were at home. No, indeed, Billy didn’t knock. He just
popped his head right in. He expected to find some babies at home if no
one else, because he knew that there are babies most of the time in the
home of a Rat.
Right then, Billy got his first surprise. That nest was empty! Yes, sir,
it was empty! There had been babies there, as his nose told him, but
they had been carried away. Billy hunted about a bit until he found the
trail leading away from the nest. This he followed. It led him
downstairs to a hole in the barn floor, through this to the ground, and
straight to an opening which led out of doors.
“Huh!” muttered Billy. “This is queer.” He ran about a bit and it didn’t
take him long to discover that there were many tracks leading to that
opening out of doors. He could tell by the smell that those Rats had
gone out and not come back.
“It looks as if my future dinners have run away,” muttered Billy, and
then he began to explore that barn in earnest. There wasn’t a hole or
crevice or cranny in it that he didn’t poke his nose into. There wasn’t
a Rat nest that he didn’t find. But not a glimpse of a single Rat did he
get, not the squeak of a single voice did he hear. There wasn’t a Rat in
the barn! When he had gone to sleep there had been many. He had heard
them squeaking all about him. Do you wonder that he was surprised?