THE FARMER GUESSES THE TRUTH
Who heeds a warning proves he’s wise,
And guards himself against surprise.
_Billy Mink._
If Billy Mink had known that he had been discovered by the farmer, under
whose woodpile he was living, it is probable that he would have moved on
in search of new adventures just as soon as the Black Shadows had crept
out across the barnyard that night. But Billy didn’t know. He had been
living there so comfortably that he had grown a little careless,
otherwise he never would have ventured out in broad daylight.
That night he decided he would have another chicken for dinner, so he
ran over to the henhouse, intending to slip through the hole in the dark
corner, just as he had done the night before. But the minute Billy had
poked his nose through that hole, he knew something was wrong. There was
a queer smell. Billy tested it very carefully with his nose. It was the
man smell. That was enough to make Billy suspicious. In less time than
it takes to tell it, he had found a trap in that henhouse, so placed
that he couldn’t possibly get in through that hole without stepping in
it. Right away Billy decided that he didn’t care for a chicken dinner
that night. He would go back to the big barn and try to catch a mouse.
Now, when the farmer had first discovered Billy Mink, his one thought
had been to catch Billy. He knew that Billy’s brown coat could be sold
for enough to pay several times over for the hen Billy had killed. So he
had set a trap in the henhouse. That night the Rats in the house were
noisier than ever. For a while he forgot Billy Mink, trying to think of
some way to get rid of those Rats. Then his thoughts came back to Billy
Mink, and all in a flash he understood why those Rats had deserted the
big barn and come over to the house.
“It was that Mink!” he exclaimed, right out loud.
“What are you talking about?” demanded his wife.
“That Mink I saw to-day going under the woodpile, the one who killed the
chicken last night,” replied the farmer. “That fellow must have been
living around here for some time, and he chased those Rats out of the
barn. There isn’t a doubt about it. He hunted those Rats in the barn
until he frightened them so they moved over here. You see, he could
follow them everywhere, and there was no getting away from him. The
pesky robbers simply decided they had got to move and our house was the
best place to move to.
“It’s all as plain as the nose on my face. If the rats had remained in
the barn, I don’t believe that Mink would have bothered the chickens.
Probably he doesn’t dare come over here to the house, or else he doesn’t
know where the Rats went to. If he would just come over here for a
while, we would soon be rid of those pests, and I would forgive him for
killing that hen.”