There’s any price too much to pay?

 

                Little Joe Otter¹.

 

Have you ever been terribly frightened? Have you ever been so frightened that you couldn’t even think? That is the way it was with the foolish young Otter when he realized that he was caught in a trap. He was so filled with terror² that he didn’t even think about the pain in his foot. There is nothing quite so awful as the helpless³ feeling that comes when one is caught in a trap. Had that young Otter been seized by an enemy twice his size he would have fought bravely to the last breath. But one cannot fight a steel trap.

 

After awhile the young Otter was so tired out with struggling that he had to be quiet to get his breath and to rest. He trembled all over. Every time he heard the least little sound he was sure it was the trapper coming to kill him. How he did wish he had heeded⁴ the warnings of his father and mother!

 

For a long, long, long time he was held a prisoner by that dreadful⁵ trap. From time to time he tried to cut the chain that held the trap, but of course he tried in vain. His teeth, sharp as they were, didn’t even scratch the steel of that chain. He wondered if his father and mother would miss him and look for him. He wondered if they would ever find out what had happened to him.

 

“If I could only get away from this thing, I never, never would disobey again,” he sobbed⁶. “No, Sir, I never, never would disobey again. I do wish father and mother would come. Perhaps if they came they could get me free from this dreadful thing.”

 

It is said that if you wish long enough and hard enough for a thing you may get your wish. Certainly the foolish young Otter wished long and hard. And at last he did get his wish. His father, Little Joe Otter, suddenly appeared. He was looking for that young Otter. He had worried when that young Otter did not return and had started out to look for him.

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