Show bedtime story f for or children by THORNTON IV BURGESS BILLY BILLS MINK MAKES A DISCOVERY W WHEN HEN billy mink slipped through the hole under the floor of the shed at the back of the farmers 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 stuff stuffed ed himself so with that fish lie he had found just outside of the hole that he felt too lazy to explore so lie he picked out the first comfortable looking place he came to and there curled up for foi a nap when billy awoke he first remember where he was then he recalled the fish and how he had slipped in under the shed floor now I 1 arn am here I 1 may as well find out all about this place thought billy and got to his feet he yawned dawned 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 ali ah hal ha exclaimed billy mink so this is where those rats came when they left the big barn im not hungry but I 1 ceita certainly cei tamly would enjoy a good hunt I 1 hunted anything bigger than a mouse for ever so long away billy raced with his nose to the ground following the scent of a rat it 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 t that h a t 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 hou se until at last he reached the attic he could hear the scampering of many feet and he could hear the squeaks of fright so he knew that the rats knew 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 re crossed bac each h others paths so often that the trail was all mixed up but if billy trust to his nose he could trust to his bis 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 D T W burgess W ita service |