By pain and fright is wisdom bought,  
And thus respect for elders taught.
 
                Little Joe Otter¹.
 
Little Joe Otter’s foolish young son, who had found a dead fish at the back of a little pen of sticks on the edge of the water, remembered the warning to leave dead fish alone. But he was hungry, and it wouldn’t take but a second to get that fish.
 
“Father and mother were just trying to scare us,” he repeated to himself. “I guess they don’t realize that I am big enough to 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 judgment². 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.
 
And then something happened! Yes, indeed, something happened! Something grabbed³ the foolish young Otter by one of his toes! Yes, Sir, it grabbed him and it grabbed him tight! What it was he hadn’t the least idea. But whatever it was, it hurt dreadfully.
 
And the young Otter suffered more from fright than he did from pain. He twisted around and plunged⁵ for the deep w............