When Billy Mink slipped through the hole under the floor of the shed at the back of the farmer’s house, his one thought was to find a comfortable place for a nap. He found it without any trouble. You know Billy is not fussy, and he can curl up and sleep almost anywhere. He had stuffed himself so with that fish he had found just outside the hole that he had felt too lazy to explore. So he picked out the first comfortable-looking place he came to and curled up for a nap.
When Billy awoke, he couldn’t at first remember where he was. Then he recalled the fish and how he had slipped in under the shed floor.
“Now I am here, I may as well find out all about this place,” thought Billy, and got to his feet. He yawned and stretched and then began to run around underneath the floor of the shed, using his nose as he always does. In no time at all a familiar scent tickled his nose.
“Ah, ha!” exclaimed Billy Mink. “So this is where those Rats came when they left the big barn. I’m not hungry, but I certainly would enjoy a good hunt. I haven’t hunted anything bigger than a mouse for ever so long.”
Away raced Billy, with his nose to the ground, following the scent of a Rat. It didn’t take him long to find a nest under the shed floor. But there was no one in that nest. The Rat smell was very strong, and Billy knew that Rats had been there only a short time before. The fact is, the Rats who owned that nest had discovered Billy Mink and had promptly moved into the house. Billy eagerly followed the trail. It led him to the hole which led in between the walls of the house. Without hesitating a second, Billy popped through, following that scent. It was a queer place. He had never been in such a place before. But Billy knew that where a Rat could go he could go, and so he followed, climbing up between the walls of the house until at last he reached the attic.
He could hear the scampering of many feet and he could hear squeaks of fright, so he knew the Rats knew that he was there. Once in the attic, Billy found the Rat scent everywhere. It was useless to try to follow with his nose, because the Rats had crossed and recrossed each other’s paths so often that the trail was all mixed up.
But if Billy couldn’t trust to his nose, he could trust to his ears. The sound of scampering feet and the frightened squeaks told him where the Rats were. His eyes blazed with the eager light of the hunter, and without even a glance at all the queer things in that attic, things such as he had never seen before, Billy kept on after those Rats.
CHAPTER XXXIII
THE FARMER SEES A STRANGE SIGHT
The really clever folks are those
Who get their friends for them to do