There’s always some one setting traps  
While honest folk are taking naps.
 
                 Little Joe Otter¹.
 
The trapper had found out the things he wanted to know. He had found out where the Otters² left the water to climb up to the top of their slippery slide. He had found out where they were in the habit of making a short cut across from one part of the brook³ to another where it made a bend. He had found certain favorite places where they brought the fish they had caught to eat. He felt that the time now had come to set traps.
 
Now this trapper knew that an Otter has a keen nose and is very suspicious. He knew that if he handled those traps with his bare hands, Little Joe or Mrs. Joe would be likely to get the dreaded⁴ man smell and would keep away from those traps. So he took care not to touch them with bare hands.
 
He first took great care to make sure that none of the Otter family were about. Then he set those cruel traps. One he placed in the water right at the foot of the bank where the Otters were in the habit of climbing out to go up to their slippery slide. He placed it in such a way that the first Otter who tried to climb up that bank would be sure to step in the trap.
 
In the short cut t............