Page 23 - LIfesOuttakes2

As Buster and I continued to tuck our pants into our boots, Butch started to mock us. “Oh, you two are a couple of big sissies. Why, I wouldn’t be afraid of no itty, bitty mouse. Besides, if you were as fast on your feet as I am, no mouse would have a chance to go up your pant leg.” He then went on to expound to us how, when he was a boy growing up in the mountains of West Virginia, he had hunted mountain lions and all sorts of really frightening creatures. The truth was, Butch and Buster had moved out here when they were about eight and nine years old, and though we were only about twelve, I still doubted Butch had done half of the things he claimed. We started loading the truck with the old bales. The ones on the outer edge didn’t show many signs of mice, but as we worked farther toward the center, we started seeing more and more tunnels. Then came the moment we expected. We turned a bale and a mouse dashed under the bale closest to it. As we continued removing bales, more and more mice would be there, and would race to the closest tunnel. Then came the time when, like musical chairs, there 18