breakfast was ready he put on what there
was and said he hadn't cooked very much because he had heard that light
breakfasts were better for people who stayed in the house a good deal,
and as for himself, he said he guessed he wouldn't eat any breakfast
that morning at all.

Then while the others were eating he crept down-stairs and looked at the
empty boxes and barrels and the few sticks of wood that were left, and
he knew that if that snow didn't melt off right away they were going to
have a _very hard time_. Then he came back up in the big living-room and
went on up-stairs to his own room, to look out the window to see if it
wasn't going to be a warm, melting day. But Mr. Crow came back pretty
soon. He came back in a hurry, too, and he slammed his door and locked
it, and then let go of everything and just slid down-stairs. Then the
Deep Woods People jumped up quick from the table and ran to him, for
they thought he was having a fit of some kind, and they still thought so
when they looked into his face: for Mr. Crow's eyes were rolled up and
his bill was pale, and when he tried to speak he couldn't. And Mr.
Rabbit said it was because Mr. Crow had done without his breakfast, and
he ran to get something from the table; but Mr. Crow couldn't eat, and
then they saw that some of the feathers on top of his head were turning
gray, and they knew he had seen some awful thing just that little moment
he was in his room.

So then they all looked at one another and wondered what it was, and
they were glad Mr. Crow had locked the door. Then they carried him over
to the fire, and pretty soon he got so he could whisper a little, and
when they knew what he was saying they understood why he was so scared
and why he had locked the door; for the words that Mr. Crow kept
whispering over and over were: "Old Hungry-Wolf! Old Hungry-Wolf! Old
Hungry-Wolf!"

All the Deep Woods People know what that means. They know that when Old
Hungry-Wolf comes, or even when you hear him bark, it means that there
is no food left in the Big Deep Woods for anybody, and that nobody can
tell how long it will be before there _will_ be food again. And all the
Deep Woods People stood still and held their breath and listened for the
bark of Old Hungry-Wolf, because they knew Mr. Crow had seen his face
looking in the window. And they all thought they heard it, except Mr.
'Possum, who said he didn't believe it was Old Hungry-Wolf at all that
Mr. Crow had seen, but