Page:Little Joe Otter.djvu/177

 take care of myself. It won't be long before I will be leaving them and going out into the Great World for myself, anyway. Then I'll have to depend on my own judgment. This fish is just waiting for me. I don't know how it happened to get here, but that doesn't make any difference. I would be a silly fellow to waste my time hunting for a live fish when a dead one is waiting for me right under my nose."

So with a look all around to make sure that no one was watching him, the foolish young Otter entered the little pen of sticks through a narrow opening, his eyes shining as he reached for the dead fish at the back of the pen.