Will not be influenced by greed.

 

              Little Joe Otter².

 

The young Otter, who had left a toe behind in a trap, was so happy to be free again that he hardly gave the loss of that toe a thought. The cold water was good for the sore foot, and as the young Otter was healthy, his foot healed rapidly. In fact, in two or three days his foot was practically well. But the young Otter didn’t forget his dreadful experience. He never would forget it. He had learned a lesson that he would remember as long as he lived. All his life he would be suspicious of traps and on the watch for them. Never again would that young Otter be caught in a trap.

 

Of course, the trapper found that toe in his trap. Such a disappointed trapper as he was! “There won’t be a chance of catching³ that Otter again,” said he. “I must have been careless in setting that trap. It should have caught him by the whole foot and not just by a toe. Probably those other Otters⁴ know all about it now.”

 

When he discovered the new slippery slide he knew that his traps at the old slippery slide had been found. He set another trap at the foot of the new slide, but he didn’t have much hope of catching any one in it. He understood perfectly⁵ that Little Joe Otter and Mrs. Joe were wise in the ways of trappers. “I guess,” muttered the trapper, “that my best chance of getting one of those Otters will be to hide for a chance to shoot one of them. To-morrow I’ll spend the day over here with my gun.”

 

So he spent all the next day hidden near the slippery slide, watching with his terrible gun. But he didn’t have a chance to use it. He didn’t get so much as a glimpse of a sleek⁶, brown head. And the reason was that Little Joe Otter and his family were far away down the

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