One crisp fall morning, Gertrude McCluck was enjoying her favorite breakfast of a bucket of fresh scratch. Just as she was pecking the crumbs out of the bottom of the bucket, Hester from the neighboring Ferny Acres sprinted up the path. "Gertrude," she gasped, "I need your help."

"What's the matter, Hester?" Gertrude inquired.

"Someone has been stealing all of the eggs from Ferny Acres," replied Hester. "All of us hens lay our eggs and then leave them in the boxes for the farmer to collect, just as we have always done. But, the farmer has not been finding any eggs lately and he thinks that we have stopped laying. And you know what that means!"

"This sounds serious," said Gertrude. "I'll see what I can do."

As Gertrude strolled over to Ferny Acres with her notebook and spyglass, she began looking for clues. There was a suspicious-looking set of small paw prints in the mud leading up and back the lane to Ferny Acres. "Strange," thought Gertrude as she looked at the prints through her spyglass and scribbled in her notebook.

As Gertrude approached the Ferny Acres coop, Hester and another hen, Wanda, were waiting. Gertrude asked, "Have you two noticed anything unusual around the coop?"

"As a matter of fact," Wanda replied, "Yesterday I did notice a few footprints around the back door of the coop. I thought that they were just the cat's, but come to think of it they could have belonged to any small animal."

"I'll go look at them," said Gertrude. The paw prints, Gertrude found, were the same as the ones she had discovered leading up and back the lane earlier. "Very interesting," she remarked and scribbled some more in her notebook.

Gertrude went back to Hester and Wanda and said to them, "I am going to set a trap that will catch your egg thief once and for all. If you don't mind donating a few eggs as bait, I will set the trap tonight and he should be caught by tomorrow morning."

Excited at the prospect of being rid of the thief, Hester and Wanda gladly donated the eggs.

The next morning Gertrude cautiously entered the coop. Sure enough, inside her trap, there was a mink clawing and scratching for escape. She approached the cage and said, "If you promise to stop stealing eggs from Ferny Acres, I will let you go."

"Oh, thank you," said the mink gratefully.

"But," said Gertrude, "you have to promise me one more thing."

The next day at Ferny Acres, all of the hens were sitting in the shade of an apple tree munching on all the best food. All that day, the mink had been running around collecting all of the best food for the hens to eat, and the hens were devouring it as fast as he could collect it!

"I don't think he'll be bothering Ferny Acres anymore," said Gertrude with satisfaction as she ate a sweet, juicy blackberry. All of the hens clucked in agreement.