SOMETHING BILLY MINK DIDN’T KNOW
A time there is to run away,
And also there’s a time to stay.
_Billy Mink._
The tree up which Billy Mink had scrambled was a big hemlock. He went
only high enough to be out of reach of Old Man Coyote, for while Billy
can climb easily, he doesn’t do any more of this than he has to. He
prefers to be on the ground. He will climb readily enough when there is
something to climb for, but otherwise he seldom takes the trouble.
Billy was very angry. Old Man Coyote had appeared at just the wrong
time. Billy had felt sure that sooner or later he would catch Jumper.
But Old Man Coyote had interfered. So Billy spitefully called Old Man
Coyote all the bad names he could think of. Old Man Coyote simply looked
up at Billy and grinned. “That’s a sharp tongue of yours, Billy,” said
he, “but calling another bad names never yet hurt anybody. I have a mind
to keep you up there for a while just to pay you for your impudence.”
This is just what Old Man Coyote did. Perhaps he hoped that Billy Mink
might lose patience and try to get down. But Billy didn’t. He knew when
he was well off. He proposed to stay right where he was until Old Man
Coyote should lose patience and give up. After a long time Old Man
Coyote did give up, and trotted off through the Green Forest.
Then Billy Mink came down. He went at once to the brush pile where
Jumper the Hare had hidden, but it didn’t take him two minutes to find
out that Jumper’s trail had grown cold. You see, after a little time the
scent left by the foot of an animal disappears. It had been so long
since Jumper had left that brush pile that there was no longer any scent
where his feet had touched the snow. So Billy Mink gave up in disgust
and continued on his way to the Laughing Brook which he soon reached and
was once more at home.
Now all the time Billy Mink had been up in the hemlock tree, he had not
been alone. He hadn’t known this. If he had, he wouldn’t have been in
such a hurry to come down. Up above his head where the branches were
thickest, Mr. and Mrs. Grouse had been roosting. They had been fast
asleep when Billy started up the tree, but the sound of his claws on the
bark had wakened them instantly. They had been ready to take to their
strong wings, if it became necessary, but they were wise enough to keep
perfectly still. They liked that big hemlock tree and they felt sure
that no one knew that they were in the habit of using it for a roost. So
they had sat perfectly still and watched all that happened down below.
When at last Old Man Coyote went away and Billy Mink scrambled down, Mr.
and Mrs. Grouse sighed with thankfulness. Then they promptly went to
sleep again. Their secret was still their own.
So Billy Mink returned to the Laughing Brook and the Smiling Pool, for
you know his heart was really there all the time. I could tell you a
great deal more about him and I would like to. But I am not going to,
because Little Joe Otter says that he spends more time in the Smiling
Pool than Billy Mink does, and that therefore he should have a book in
this series. So the next volume will be Little Joe Otter.
The End
[Illustration]
TRANSCRIBER NOTES
Misspelled words and printer errors have been corrected. Where multiple
spellings occur, majority use has been employed.
Punctuation has been maintained except where obvious printer errors
occur.