<div><h1 id='ch26'>CHAPTER XXVI<br/> <span class='sub-head'>THE FOOLISH YOUNG OTTER</span></h1></div>
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<p class='line0'>Youth too often scorns advice</p>
<p class='line0'>And in the end must pay the price.</p>
<p class='line0'>              <span class='it'>Little Joe Otter.</span></p>
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<p class='pindent'><span class='sc'>Little Joe Otter</span> took the two
young Otters over to the log where
he had found the trap and showed
it to them. It looked so harmless
that it was difficult for the young
Otters to believe that it was such
a terrible thing as their father said
it was. Then he took them over
to the foot of the slippery slide,
and while they swam about at a
safe distance he looked carefully
until he found a trap right at the
bottom of the slippery slide. He
showed it to them.</p>
<p class='pindent'>“Now you see why I said you
mustn’t go down the slippery slide
even once,” said he. “I didn’t
know that this trap was here, but
I suspected it. I suspect that
there are traps in the other places
I have warned you to keep away
from. If you want to live long
and be happy, don’t once forget
the warnings your mother and I
have given you.”</p>
<p class='pindent'>The young Otters promised they
wouldn’t forget, and then the
whole family went fishing. Of
course, they didn’t go fishing together.
They separated, each one
fishing in a different place. All
the time she was looking for a
trout, the smallest Otter kept
thinking about those traps. She
made up her mind that nothing
would tempt her to be heedless
of the warnings she had been
given. You see, she had not forgotten
the lesson she had learned
when Yowler the Bobcat had
caught her because of her heedless
wilfulness.</p>
<p class='pindent'>But her brother had had no such
lesson, and as he hunted for trout
he smiled to himself at what he
thought were the foolish fears of
his parents. “Father and mother
are just trying to scare us,” said he.
“I don’t believe there is anything
to be afraid of as long as that
dreadful two-legged creature isn’t
about. Those traps look perfectly
harmless to me. I’m not afraid of
them. I guess if I use my eyes
and my nose I can find them
without getting into one of them.
I wonder where all the fish have
gone to. My, I’m hungry! I
believe I’ll go farther up the
brook. There is some swift, open
water up there and it hasn’t been
fished much.”</p>
<p class='pindent'>So the young Otter swam to the
upper end of the open water where
he then was, climbed out on the
ice and traveled over this until
he came to another stretch of
open water. He swam along close
to the bank on one side and presently
came to a sort of little pen
of sticks. He didn’t remember
having seen it before, and he looked
at it suspiciously. He swam around
it at a safe distance, and then he
smelled fish. It didn’t take him
long to discover that inside of that
little pen, at the back, was a fat
trout. That trout wasn’t alive.
It seemed to be held by a stick
at the back of that little pen.</p>
<p class='pindent'>The young Otter remembered
the warning not to touch a dead
fish. But he was hungry, very
hungry, and here was a dinner he
wouldn’t have to take the trouble
to catch. He swam back and
forth in front of that little pen
of sticks and examined them carefully.
He went close to them and
smelled of them. They seemed
nothing but harmless sticks. His
mouth began to water at the smell
of the fish.</p>
<p class='pindent'>“There isn’t a particle of danger,”
said the foolish young Otter.
“There wouldn’t be a trap way
up here, anyway. I want that
fish and I’m going to have it.”</p>
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