latter touched the fish.

Snap! A pair of wicked steel jaws flew together and caught Little
Joe Otter by a claw of one toe. If it hadn't been for Jerry's push,
he would have been caught by a foot.

"Oh! Oh! Oh!" cried Little Joe Otter.

"Next time I guess you'll remember what Grandfather Frog said about
watching out when you find things to eat where they never were before,"
said Jerry, as he helped Little Joe pull himself free from the trap.
But he left the claw behind and had a dreadfully sore toe as a result.
Then they buried the trap deep down in the mud and started to look
for another.

All around the Smiling Pool and along the Laughing Brook their
cousins and uncles and aunts and friends were just as busy, and
every once in a while some one would have just as narrow an escape
as Little Joe Otter. And all the time up at the farmhouse Farmer
Brown's boy was planning what he would do with the skins of the
little animals he was sure he would catch in his traps.



CHAPTER VI: Farmer Brown's Boy Is Puzzled

Farmer Brown's boy was whistling merrily as he tramped down across
the Green Meadows. The Merry Little Breezes saw him coming, and they
raced over to the Smiling Pool to tell Billy Mink. Farmer Brown's
boy was coming to visit his traps. He was very sure that he would