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.