find Billy Mink or Little Joe Otter, or Jerry Muskrat, or perhaps
Bobby Coon.

Billy Mink was sitting on top of the Big Rock. He saw the Merry
Little Breezes racing across the Green Meadows, and behind them
he saw Farmer Brown's boy. Billy Mink dived head first into the
Smiling Pool. Then he swam over to Jerry Muskrat's house and warned
Jerry. Together they hunted up Little Joe Otter, and then the three
little scamps in brown hid in the bulrushes, where they could watch
Farmer Brown's boy.

The first place Farmer Brown's boy visited was Jerry Muskrat's
old log. Very cautiously he peeped over the edge of the bank.
The trap was gone!

"Hurrah!" shouted Farmer Brown's boy. He was very much excited, as
he caught hold of the end of the chain, which fastened it to the old
log. He was sure that at last he had caught Jerry Muskrat. When he
pulled the trap up, it was empty. Between the jaws were a few hairs
and a little bit of skin, which Jerry Muskrat had left there when he
sprung the trap with his tail.

Farmer Brown's boy was disappointed. "Well, I'll get him to-morrow,
anyway," said he to himself. Then he went on to his next trap;
it was nowhere to be seen. When he pulled the chain he was so excited
that he trembled. The trap did not come up at once. He pulled and
pulled, and then suddenly up it came, all covered with mud. In it
was one little claw from Little Joe Otter. Very carefully Farmer
Brown's boy set the trap again. If he could have looked over in the
bulrushes and have seen Little Joe Otter and Billy Mink and Jerry