<div><h1 id='ch24'>CHAPTER XXIV<br/> <span class='sub-head'>WHERE THE RATS WERE</span></h1></div>
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<p class='line0'>The mischievous will find some day</p>
<p class='line0'>That for their mischief they must pay.</p>
<p class='line0'>                        <span class='it'>Billy Mink.</span></p>
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<p class='pindent'><span class='sc'>If</span> Billy Mink didn’t know
where the Rats who had left the
big barn had gone to, the farmer
who owned the big barn and the
henhouse and the woodpile knew.
Yes, indeed, the farmer and his
family knew just where those Rats
were. They were in the farmhouse!</p>
<p class='pindent'>You see, the wise, gray old
leader of the Rats knew that the
safest place for them was in that
farmhouse. In the first place it
was big, and that meant that there
was plenty of room with ever and
ever so many hiding-places. There
was food there, plenty of it, to be
stolen. They could be very comfortable
in that farmhouse. More
than this, they would be safe from
Billy Mink. That gray old leader
knew that Billy Mink would hesitate
a long time about actually
entering the house, because of his
fear of man. He didn’t believe
that Billy would dream of looking
for them in that house, especially if
he couldn’t track them over there.
This Billy couldn’t do, as the wise
old leader very well knew, because
it had been snowing when the Rats
left the big barn, and the falling
snow had covered their tracks and
destroyed the scent.</p>
<p class='pindent'>So, while Billy Mink was looking
under the woodpile and in the
henhouse for those Rats, they were
making themselves very much at
home in the farmhouse. They
could climb about between the
walls and go where they pleased.
The first thing to do was to make
homes for the babies. It didn’t
take some of those Rats long to
find the way to the attic. Now
the attic was filled with trunks and
boxes and papers and all sorts of
odds and ends. It was just such a
place as Rats love. Right away
the mother Rats began to tear up
papers and make rags of clothing
that hung in the attic. Rags and
paper make the finest kind of a nest
for a Rat. These nests they hid in
dark places behind boxes and trunks.</p>
<p class='pindent'>And while they were busy with
this, the father Rats set out to
search for food. It didn’t take
them long to find the pantry and
gnaw holes through the wall into
it. And they were not quiet about
their work, either. The farmer
and the farmer’s wife knew what
was going on. They could hear
the scamper of little feet across the
attic floor and faint squeaks.</p>
<p class='pindent'>“Gracious!” exclaimed the
farmer. “I should think all the
Rats in the barn had moved over
here.” He little guessed how
exactly he had hit on the truth.</p>
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