Don’t think, but make quite sure you know  
A thing is thus or mayhap so.
 
                   Little Joe Otter¹.
 
Of all the puzzled people in all the Great World none was more puzzled than was the young Otter whose big fish had disappeared. He had certainly killed that fish, He had even taken two big bites out of the choicest part of it. So he knew that the fish couldn’t have flopped² off the ice into the water while he was away. He had been gone only a few minutes, just long enough to get his sister and bring her over to see that big fish. He had boasted that it was bigger than any fish she ever had caught. Now there wasn’t a trace of it anywhere.
 
His sister tossed her head. “I don’t believe you caught a big fish at all,” said she.
 
“But I tell you I did,” protested her brother. “I caught him and I left it right here.”
 
“Then where is it?” demanded his sister.
 
But this the young Otter couldn’t say. He wished he could. He had a queer and most uncomfortable feeling. It made him uneasy. Actually it made him afraid. He didn’t know what he was afraid of, but he was afraid. So when his sister disgustedly plunged³ into the water and swam back to the slippery slide o............