<div><h1 id='ch4'>CHAPTER IV<br/> <span class='sub-head'>BILLY FINDS SOME QUEER FENCES</span></h1></div>
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<p class='line0'>When something new and strange you find,</p>
<p class='line0'>Watch out! To danger be not blind.</p>
<p class='line0'>                          <span class='it'>Billy Mink.</span></p>
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<p class='pindent'><span class='sc'>The</span> trouble with a great many
people is that they are heedless.
When they find something new
and strange they forget everything
but their curiosity. Because of
this they walk right straight into
trouble. It happens over and over
again.</p>
<p class='pindent'>But Billy Mink isn’t this kind
of a person. My, my, I should
say not. He never has been. If
he had he would have lost that
beautiful, brown coat of his long
ago and there would be no Billy
Mink. Billy has his share of curiosity,
but with it he possesses a
great big bump of suspicion. When
he finds anything new and strange
he wants to learn all about it.
But right away he is suspicious of
it.</p>
<p class='pindent'>After he had discovered the trap
set for him at the entrance to one
of his favorite holes, and had fooled
the trapper by getting the fish the
trapper had placed in that hole,
Billy went on up the Laughing
Brook to see what else he could
discover. Not very far above that
place there was a steep bank on
each side of the Laughing Brook.
Along the foot of each bank was
a narrow strip of level ground between
the bank and the water.
You see, at this season of the year,
the water in the Laughing Brook
was low.</p>
<p class='pindent'>When Billy came to this place
he discovered something queer. It
was a little fence. It ran from the
foot of the bank straight out into
the Laughing Brook to where the
water became deep. Midway in
this little fence was a gateway just
big enough to slip through comfortably.
Billy looked across to
the other side of the Laughing
Brook. Over there was another
little fence just like this one, and
that little fence had an opening in
it.</p>
<p class='pindent'>“Huh!” said Billy. “Huh!
These fences are something new.
They were not here when I came
down the Laughing Brook yesterday.
I wonder what they are for.
If it were not for those two little
openings I would have either to
climb the bank or swim around the
ends of those fences, and that would
be bothersome. I can go through
that little opening there as easily
as rolling off a log. But I’m not
going to do it. No, sir, I’m not
going to do it. There is something
wrong about these fences.
They look to me as if they were
built just to make me go through
one of those little gateways. If
that’s the case, I’m not going to
do it.”</p>
<p class='pindent'>So Billy plunged into the Laughing
Brook and swam out into the
deep water around the end of the
little fence. Then very carefully
he approached the little opening
from that side. The more he
looked at it, the less he liked it.
Right in the middle of that little
opening were some wet, dead leaves.
“Ha, ha!” said Billy. “Another
trap!”</p>
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