<div><h1 id='ch11'>CHAPTER XI<br/> <span class='sub-head'>BILLY AND LITTLE JOE DECIDE TO GO VISITING</span></h1></div>
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<p class='line0'>Don’t scoff at one who runs away;</p>
<p class='line0'>He’ll live to scoff at you some day.</p>
<p class='line0'>                      <span class='it'>Billy Mink.</span></p>
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<p class='pindent'><span class='sc'>After</span> visiting the Smiling Pool
and warning Little Joe Otter and
Jerry Muskrat to watch out for
traps, Bobby Coon decided that the
Laughing Brook was altogether
too dangerous a place for him, so
he turned back into the Green
Forest, firmly resolved to keep
away from the Laughing Brook.
Billy Mink and Little Joe Otter
talked things over.</p>
<p class='pindent'>“I found three traps,” said Billy
Mink. “There may be some I
have not found. Anyway, it is
certain that when that trapper
finds that I know about those
traps, he will set some more. I
don’t believe he is smart enough to
hide a trap so that we cannot find
it. But you know, accidents will
happen. He knows that you and I
live along the Laughing Brook and
he will simply make life miserable
for us by continuing to set traps.
Do you know what I believe I’ll
do?”</p>
<p class='pindent'>“What?” asked Little Joe Otter.</p>
<p class='pindent'>“I believe I’ll go away for a
visit,” replied Billy Mink. “I’ve
been feeling rather restless for
some time, anyway, and there isn’t
any better time of year to go visiting
than right now, before the snow
and ice come. There’s a certain
brook some distance from here that
for a long time I’ve been thinking
of visiting. I believe I’ll start to-night
and I’ll stay long enough for
this trapper to get tired of setting
traps and catching nothing.”</p>
<p class='pindent'>“That’s a good idea,” said
Little Joe Otter. “I believe I’ll
go visiting myself. I always did
like to travel. There is no sense in
taking foolish risks, and that is just
what we would be doing by staying
here. I think I’ll go down to the
Big River and stay awhile. The
fishing here isn’t as good as it
might be, anyway. I wonder if
Jerry Muskrat will go visiting too.
Let’s tell him what we are going
to do and see if he wants to go
along with one of us.”</p>
<p class='pindent'>“He can’t go with me,” declared
Billy Mink, in a most decided tone.
“He travels too slowly. I don’t
believe he would want to go with
me anyway, because, between you
and me, I suspect Jerry is a little
afraid of me.”</p>
<p class='pindent'>Little Joe Otter grinned. “I
guess he has reason to be,” said he.
“I’ve been told that the Mink
family has a liking for Muskrat
meat. I hardly think he’ll want
to go along with me either, because
he is such a home-loving body.
But anyway, we’ll tell him what
we’re going to do and then he can
do as he pleases.”</p>
<p class='pindent'>So Billy Mink and Little Joe
Otter hunted up Jerry Muskrat
and told him how they were going
to fool the trapper by going visiting.
They urged him to do the
same thing.</p>
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