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.”
CHAPTER XXIX
THE FARMER MAKES FRIENDS WITH BILLY
Friendship is most surely won
By kindly deeds for others done.