Chapter 10

SOMETHING IN THE TRAP.

The next time Bertie went to the spring, he expected to find Jack awaiting him. No one was there, however; not even the musk-rat. The trap remained just as he left it, and the bait was undisturbed. He was glad not to meet Jack (who had been and gone); but he was not a little disappointed about the musk-rat. He began to cherish hard feelings towards it. It was too bad of him not to come into the trap and be caught, when such pains had been taken to receive him properly. The trap was as inviting as trap could be. It said quite plainly, "Will you walk into my parlor?" and never dropped a word as to getting out again. What more could a musk-rat ask? He examined the tracks in the wet ground, but could not make out that any of them were fresh. He did not believe that anything had been near the trap during the night. It was quite provoking, for to-morrow would be Sunday. Of course he could not travel down to the spring on Sunday, and Monday was so far off! He declared that he could not wait till Monday. But there was no help for it. The hours were not at all disposed to humor his impatience. They moved along at their usual slow pace, and wore away minute by minute, as was their custom. But they brought Monday morning at last. He rose early, and set out in quite a hopeful mood; but as he walked, his spirits began to flag. The nearer he got to the spring, the less hope he had. He was trying to prepare himself for the very worst that could happen--a trap with nothing in it--when somebody called "Hooray!" It was Jack, who had been waiting almost an hour. When he saw Bertie coming, he danced and threw his arms about in a manner wonderful to behold. Bertie started into a run, for he inferred from Jack's antics that something unusual had happened.

"Hooray!" cried Jack again, as Bertie came up, panting and blowing equal to Jack himself, who always breathed as if he had been running.

"What have you got to say to _that_ critter?"

Bertie could hardly believe his eyes, for they rested on the biggest musk-rat he had ever seen. It was a beauty, too! Such dark fur! And such a length of smooth, hairless tail! Bertie was delighted; and though the musk-rat was a large one, his eyes magnified it to such a degree that it looked three times as large as it really was.

"That is a sight worth looking at, ain't it now?"

"It is a buster!" said Bertie.

"It is the biggest fellow that has been trapped this season. You won't catch nary 'nother like _him_. He is a whopper!"

"And it is alive, too!"

"Half and half. He is hurt that bad, it won't take much to finish him. He would show fight if he wasn't dead beat. Shall I pop him over?"

"I don't want to kill him," said Bertie.

"Have you had a fair squint at him?"

"Yes."

"I won't be long settling of his hash."

Jack tapped him on the head with a stone, and after a few shivers the animal was still.

"That killed him so sudden he didn't know what was a hurting of him."

"Why did he shiver then?"

"They always do that. They always wiggle when the heart's a-beating. They are dead all the same, though. Now you want to take his hide off."

"Not yet," said Bertie, quickly.

"Better be a doing of it while he is warm."

"I must show him up first."

As he raised the musk-rat tenderly by the long, bare tail, his heart swelled in his breast. What would Charley say to musk-rat catching now? He himself had never dreamed of luck like this, and Charley would be astounded. He was absently moving off, when Jack called:

"Here, you young trapper! Don't be a-dodging off without making ready for more of the same family!"

"I shall not set the trap again," said Bertie.

"What's the reason?"

"It is a long walk up here, and I am satisfied with my game," he added, proudly.

"Do you mind lending of it to a feller?"

"Certainly not. You can keep it as long as you wish."

"That is clever, now. I'll set it in the same place, jest for luck. I say, don't you want some help about skinning the critter?"

Bertie thought he could manage it alone.

"It will be an awkward job, if you never tried it."

"I suppose it will," said Bertie.

"And you may spile the head. I don't mind showing of you how it's done."

Bertie thanked Jack, but declined to trouble him. The fact was, he was in a hurry to get home with his prize. He could not stop to talk about anything, for Charley had not seen it. Didn't he open his black eyes when he saw what Bertie had brought?

And didn't Bertie feel proud and happy? But he did not make much ado about his good fortune, as Charley would have done under similar circumstances. He allowed the game to speak for itself. At first Charley was inclined to doubt that it was caught in Bertie's trap; but Bertie asked--with some vanity, we confess--if he could mention any boy who would be likely to give up an animal like that, and Charley could not.

Everybody came out to examine Bertie's prize, and everybody said it was a beauty. Flora clapped her hands, for now she was to have all the 'fumery she wanted. It lay at full length on the piazza, until it had been duly admired by every one on the premises, and then it was carried over to Grandma's.

"Bless me!" exclaimed the old lady, as the children rushed in and laid the musk-rat at her feet.

"Bless me! Open that window, Amy dear. I never can breathe with a creetur like that in the house. Take it right out, dears."

"But we want you to look at it, Grandma. Bertie caught it."

"In the trap," added Flora.

She patted Bertie on the head, and said he was a dear boy, but she should stifle if they did not carry the creetur out. So to please Grandma they carried it out and laid it on the door-stone. She could look at it from the open window with a handkerchief at her nose.

"Ain't it a stunner?" said Charley.

"It is a proper large one," said Grandma. "It makes me think of your father, Amy, dear, when he was a boy. He was always fetching home some sort of a creetur. La! how natural it does seem. I remember once he took to killing black cats. He fetched home as many as twenty altogether, and their skins, stretched out to dry on the side of the barn, stared me in the face every time I went into the yard. How this creetur does carry a body back, to be sure."

"This fellow wears a pretty jacket," said Charley. "I wish we knew the easiest way of getting it off. Do you know, Grandma?"

"La, child, I never was no hand for such doings."

"What a question," said Amy. "Of course Grandma does not know."

"We had better commence operations, if we expect to get through before school time," said Bertie. "That is, if Grandma has looked at him long enough. Have you, Grandma?"

"Bless the child!" said Grandma, who had endured the creature simply to please her darlings. "Never mind staying longer on my account. But drop in as you go to school, and get your luncheon."

"Tarts?" queried Bertie.

But Grandma smiled and closed the window, to shut out, if possible, the stifling odor of musk.

"I almost wish I had taken up with Jack's offer," Bertie said to Charley, as they carried the musk-rat home.

"What was that?"

"He wanted to skin the fellow for me."

"I can boss that job," said Charley.

"And so can I?"

That was a part both understood, and it was the only part.