BILLY GOES HOME
You’ll ne’er regret the kindly deed
That aids another in his need.
_Billy Mink._
Almost at the heels of the last frightened Rat fleeing from the house of
Billy Mink’s friend, the farmer, appeared Billy Mink himself. The Rat
started for the big barn, but Billy caught him before he was halfway
there.
The farmer who had been watching knew that was the last Rat. He knew it
because he knew that Billy would not have shown himself outside as long
as there was a Rat left inside. At once the farmer went over and stopped
up that hole, so that no Rat could get back into the house.
“You killed one of my chickens, you little brown rascal,” said he, “but
you’ve paid for it ten times over. I had intended to kill you for that
beautiful, brown coat of yours, but now I wouldn’t harm a hair of it. As
long as you want to stay around here, you are welcome. In fact, the
longer you stay around here, the better I will like it, and I shall see
to it that you have plenty to eat.”
Billy Mink didn’t hear this, and he wouldn’t have understood it if he
had. But he had already made up his mind that the farmer was his friend
and that was sufficient.
After catching that last Rat to leave the house, Billy went over to the
woodpile where he was making his home. It didn’t take him long to
discover that some of those Rats were hiding in the woodpile, and he
promptly hunted them out of there just as he had hunted them out of the
house. Then, being tired, he curled up for a nap.
For two or three days after that Billy Mink hunted Rats. He hunted them
until there was not one of that robber gang left in the big barn, the
henhouse, or under the woodpile. In fact, there wasn’t one of those
robber Rats left on the farm. Where those who had escaped had gone, the
farmer didn’t know and Billy Mink didn’t know, and neither of them
cared. The farmer was so happy at being rid of those robbers that it
seemed as if he couldn’t do enough for Billy Mink. He kept Billy
supplied with good things to eat, so that Billy didn’t know what it was
to be really hungry. He grew as fat as a Mink can be, and he grew lazy
as well.
Now Billy Mink is not naturally lazy. He is one of the most active of
all the little people of the Green Forest and the Green Meadows. Not
having to hunt for his food, Billy found little to do but eat and sleep,
and after a week of this, he began to get uneasy. He began to long for
excitement and new scenes.
And so one night Billy left his comfortable quarters and started back
for the Laughing Brook and the Smiling Pool, the place he really called
home. He was anxious to find out if any of his old friends had been
caught in the traps which had been the cause of his leaving the Laughing
Brook. The next morning the food put out for him by the farmer was
untouched, and the farmer knew that Billy had left, and he was sorry.