Show bedtime story f for or children by THORNTON W BURGESS THE LAST OF THE ROBBER RATS ALMOST A at the heels of the last frightened rat fleeing from the house of billy minks friend the farmer appeared billy mink himself the rat started for the big barn but billy caught him before he was halt hall way there the farmer who had been watching knew that that was the last rat he knew it because he knew that billy would not have shown P of for two or three days after that billy hunted rats bats 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 youve paid for it ten times over I 1 had intended to kill you for thai beautiful brown coat of yours but now I 1 harm a hair of it As long as you stay around here the better I 1 will like it and I 1 shall see to it that you have plenty to eat billy mink hear this and he have understood it il ii 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 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 hw ha 4 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 ile 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 one of those robber rats left on the farm where those who had escaped had gone the farmer know and billy mink know and neither of them cared the farmer was so happy at being rid of those robbers that it seemed as if he do enough for billy mink he kept billy supplied with good things to eat so that billy know what it was to be really huri hungry gry he grew as fat as a mink can be and he grew lazy as well now nov 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 foi fo 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 in the green forest near farmer browns the place he really called home he was anxious to find out if any of his friends there had been caught in the traps which had been the cause of his lea leaving vin 9 the laughing brook the next morning the food put out by the farmer for him was untouched and the farmer knew that billy had left he was sorry 0 T W burgess service |