<div><h1 id='ch15'>CHAPTER XV<br/> <span class='sub-head'>A DEN OF ROBBERS</span></h1></div>
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<p class='line0'>Greed and Selfishness are twins</p>
<p class='line0'>Who lead the way to greater sins.</p>
<p class='line0'>                  <span class='it'>Billy Mink.</span></p>
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<p class='pindent'><span class='sc'>When</span> Billy Mink started to explore
the big barn in the farmyard
where he had decided to stay for a
while, he didn’t know that he was
entering a den of robbers. But
that is what he was doing. Yes,
Sir, that is just what he was doing.
You see, that barn was the home
of ever and ever so many of the
tribe of Robber the Rat, and each
one of them, big and little, was a
robber. They lived by robbing,
which, you know, is another name
for stealing.</p>
<p class='pindent'>Now those robbers had lived in
that big barn so long that they had
come to look on it as belonging to
them. They knew every nook and
corner and cranny in it and under
it. The farmer who owned it had
tried his best to kill them or drive
them away. But those robber
Rats simply laughed at all his
efforts. They were smart. Oh,
yes, indeed, they were smart. Robbers
often are quite as smart as
honest people. They were too
smart for that farmer.</p>
<p class='pindent'>All those Rats belonged to the
Brown Rat tribe. Not that they
were all brown. The fact is, the
older ones were quite gray. But
that was because they were old and
had grown gray with age.</p>
<p class='pindent'>Not all Rats are bad. There is
Trader the Wood Rat. He is
honest and respected by his neighbors.
But all the Brown Rat tribe
are outcasts, despised by all the
little people of the Green Meadows
and the Green Forest, and hated
by man. There is no good in
them. They become robbers as
soon as they can run about, and
they remain robbers as long as
they live. There is not an honest
hair on one of them. They hate
the sunlight, for their deeds are
deeds of darkness. They are
savage.</p>
<p class='pindent'>But with all this, they are clever,
very clever, indeed. They are so
clever that, in spite of all man’s
efforts to kill them, their tribe has
increased until it is probably the
largest tribe of little people who
wear fur in all the world, excepting
the Mouse tribe.</p>
<p class='pindent'>The farmer who owned that barn
had set traps of many kinds, but
the wise old leader of the Rats had
found each trap and warned all his
relatives. The farmer had tried to
poison them, but somehow their
wise old leader always knew where
the poison was and warned them
against it. A Cat had been brought
to catch them, but the tough old
fighters among the Rats had driven
that Cat out.</p>
<p class='pindent'>So the Rats had increased, and
the greater the numbers, the more
they stole. They gnawed holes
wherever there was a chance of
getting food. They got into the
farmer’s house and did great damage
there. In the spring they had
killed young chickens in the henhouse.
They stole eggs. In fact,
these robbers did as they pleased,
and the big barn was their den.</p>
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