"Good mo'ning, Jimmy Skunk," said Unc' Billy.

Jimmy Skunk looked up. "h.e.l.lo, Unc' Billy!" he exclaimed. "I haven't seen you for a long time!"

"Whar yo' been, Jimmy Skunk?" asked Unc' Billy.

Jimmy winked one eye. "Getting my breakfast of nice fresh eggs," he replied.

Unc' Billy Possum's mouth began to water. "Did yo' leave any?" he anxiously inquired.

Jimmy Skunk allowed that he did, and Unc' Billy gave a long sigh, as he watched Jimmy Skunk amble off up the Lone Little Path. Unc' Billy couldn't sleep any more now. No, Sir, he couldn't sleep a wink. All he could do was to think how hungry he was. He would shut his eyes, and then it seemed as if he could see right into Farmer Brown's hen-house, and there were eggs, eggs, eggs, everywhere. Finally Unc' Billy made up his mind.

"Ah'm going up there the very first dark night!" said he.

XIV

OLD MRS. POSSUM GROWS WORRIED

Old Mrs. Possum counted her babies to be sure that they all were tucked snug and warm in their bed in the old hollow tree in the Green Forest. "One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight." They were all there. Mrs. Possum looked at them with a great deal of pride and sighed as she thought of how soon they would be leaving the old hollow tree to see the great world and make homes for themselves. Just as soon as the beautiful spring came, they would one by one slip away.

Mrs. Possum sighed again. She didn't like winter. No, Sir, she didn't like winter one bit. But when she thought of how her babies would leave her, she almost wished that spring never would come.

Sure that her babies were warm and comfortable, old Mrs. Possum went to the door and looked out. It was plain to be seen that Mrs. Possum was worried. That was the tenth time she had looked out in half an hour. Her sharp little old face looked sharper than ever. It always looks sharper when she is worried, just as the tongues of some people always grow sharper when they are worried.

"Ah don' see what can be keepin' mah ol' man! Ah'm plumb worried to death," muttered old Mrs. Possum.

Right that very minute she heard a noise outside that made her hurry to the door and thrust her head out once more. It was Sammy Jay, shrieking:

"Thief! Thief! Thief!" at the top of his lungs.

"He's a thief himself and just a low-down mischief-maker, for all his smart clo'es, but he knows a powerful lot about what is going on in the Green Forest, and perhaps he has seen mah ol' man," said old Mrs.

Possum, as she tried to make her sharp face as pleasant as possible.

She looked over at Sammy Jay, who was in the next tree, and smiled, and when she smiled she showed all her sharp teeth.

"Good mo'ning, Brer Jay," said she.

"h.e.l.lo!" exclaimed Sammy Jay, not at all politely. "Where's Uncle Billy Possum?"

Old Mrs. Possum shook her head, and the worried look came back into her face, although she tried hard, oh, so hard, not to let it.

"He done go out fo' a walk," replied old Mrs. Possum. "Ah reckons yo'all just got up, or yo' would have met up with him somewhere."

Old Mrs. Possum said this just to try to make Sammy Jay talk, for Sammy is very quick-tempered, and quick-tempered people often say a lot more than they mean to. You see, Mrs. Possum was quite sure that if Sammy Jay knew how worried she was over Unc' Billy Possum, he would refuse to tell her whether or not he had seen Unc' Billy, for Sammy Jay is mean and loves to torment others.

Sammy's temper flared up right away. "I've been up ever since sun-up!"

he sputtered. "Your old man isn't anywhere in the Green Forest, unless he's gone to sleep in some other hollow tree, and I wouldn't blame him a bit if he had! No, Sir, I wouldn't blame him the least bit!"

"Keep your temper, Brer Jay!

Keep your temper, do, Oh pray!"

said old Mrs. Possum, grinning in the most aggravating way as she turned back to her babies. She had found out what she wanted to know--Sammy Jay had seen nothing of Unc' Billy Possum. Old Mrs. Possum sat down with her head in her hands. She was more worried than ever.

XV

THE FOOLISHNESS OF UNC' BILLY POSSUM

If Unc' Billy Possum hadn't happened to look out of his doorway in the big hollow tree in the Green Forest, or if Jimmy Skunk hadn't happened to come along just that very minute, or if Unc' Billy hadn't asked Jimmy where he had been, or if Jimmy hadn't mentioned nice fresh eggs, Unc' Billy wouldn't have been foolish, and old Mrs. Possum wouldn't have been worried. But all those things did happen.

After Jimmy Skunk had mentioned his fine breakfast of fresh eggs, Unc'

Billy Possum couldn't think of anything else. He knew well enough where Jimmy had found those eggs. Yes, indeed, Unc' Billy knew all about it. He could shut his eyes and just see the inside of Farmer Brown's hen-house with the rows of hens and roosters sitting on the roosts at one end, their heads tucked under their wings. He could see the rows of nests and the beautiful brown eggs in them. Jimmy Skunk couldn't climb, and so he could have gotten only the eggs in the lower nests. Now if he, Unc' Billy, had been there, he could have climbed to the very topmost nest and--but what was the use of thinking about it?

He hadn't been there, and he couldn't go now, because it was daylight.

All the rest of the day Unc' Billy tried to sleep, but when he did sleep he dreamed about eggs, nice, fresh, delicious eggs, and when he was awake he though about eggs. It made him more and more uneasy and fidgety. Old Mrs. Possum couldn't stand it.

"What all am the matter with yo'?" she snapped. "Ah do wish yo' would keep still a minute!"

Unc' Billy muttered something, but all that Mrs. Possum could hear was "eggs."

"Now don't yo'all get to thinking of such foolishness as eggs," she commanded. "It isn't safe to be snooping around Farmer Brown's hen-house when there's snow on the ground. Yo' just fo'get all about eggs! Do yo' hear what Ah say?"

Unc' Billy nodded that he did. But just the same he couldn't think of anything else. He knew that old Mrs. Possum was right, and that it wasn't safe to go fooling around Farmer Brown's hen-house and leaving his tracks for everybody who came along to see. Just the same, Unc'

Billy felt that he had got to have a nice fresh egg. He had got to have it. That is all there was about it.

As soon as jolly, round, red Mr. Sun had gone to bed behind the Purple Hills that night, Unc' Billy crept out of his home in the hollow tree.

"Where are yo' going?" demanded Mrs. Possum.

"Just to stretch the kinks out of mah legs," replied Unc' Billy.

Old Mrs. Possum looked after him suspiciously. "Don't yo' go fo' to do any foolishness!" she called.

Unc' Billy didn't answer. He was on his way to Farmer Brown's hen-house.

XVI

WHY UNC' BILLY POSSUM DIDN'T GO HOME

Unc' Billy Possum had a very good reason for not going home, a very good reason, indeed. Even old Mrs. Possum would have thought it was a good reason, could she have known it. But she didn't know it, and so she sat in the home in the big hollow tree in the Green Forest and worried herself almost sick, because Unc' Billy didn't come home, and she didn't know what might have happened to him.