He got up and opened a mud cupboard, from which he took a big steel trap. Twinkle could see that it was just like the trap papa had set to catch the woodchucks, only it seemed much bigger and stronger.
The judge got a mallet and with it pounded a stake into the mud floor. Then he fastened the chain of the trap to the stake, and afterward opened the iron jaws of the cruel-looking thing and set them with a lever, so that the slightest touch would spring the trap and make the strong jaws snap together.
"Now, little girl," said he, "you must step in the trap and get caught."
"Why, it would break my leg!" cried Twinkle.
"Did your father care whether a woodchuck got its leg broken or not?" asked the judge.
"No," she answered, beginning to be greatly frightened.
"Step!" cried the judge, sternly.
"It will hurt awfully," said Mister Woodchuck; "but that can't be helped. Traps are cruel things, at the best."
Twinkle was now trembling with nervousness and fear.
