till the cows come home!"

Then Mr. Dog was mad, I _tell_ you, and told him what he'd do next time;
and he set out for home fast as he could travel, and went in the back
way and hid, for Mr. Man was already getting up the cows when he got
there.

Well, Mr. 'Possum didn't try that swinging trick on Mr. Dog any more. He
found out that it was dangerous, the way he was getting, and that made
him think he ought to change his habits in other ways too. For one
thing, he decided he ought to have some regular place to stay where he
could eat and sleep and feel at home, instead of just travelling about
and putting up for the night wherever he happened to be.

Mr. 'Possum was always quite stylish, too, and had a good many nice
clothes, and it wasn't good for them to be packed about all the time;
and once some of his best things got rained on and he had to sleep on
them for a long time to get them pressed out smooth again.

[Illustration: HE WAS AN OLD BACHELOR AND LIKED TO HAVE HIS OWN WAY]

So Mr. 'Possum made up his mind to find a home. He was an old bachelor
and never wanted to be anything else, because he liked to have his own
way, and go out all times of the night, and sleep late if he wanted to.
So he made up his mind to look up a good place to board--some place that
would be like a home to him--perhaps in a private family.

One day when he was walking through the woods thinking about it, and
wondering how he ought to begin to find a place like that, he met Mr. Z.
'Coon, who was one of his oldest friends in the Big Deep Woods. They had
often been hunting together, especially nights, for Mr. 'Coon and Mr.
'Possum always like that time best for hunting, and have better luck in
the dark than any other time. Mr. 'Coon had had his troubles with Mr.
Dog, too, and had come very near getting caught one night when Mr. Man
and some of his friends were out with Mr. Dog and his relatives and
several guns looking for a good Sunday dinner. Mr. 'Coon _would_ have
got caught that time, only when Mr. Man cut the tree down that he was in
he gave a big jump as the tree was falling and landed in another tree,
and then ran out on a limb and jumped to another tree that wasn't so far
away, and then to another, so that Mr. Man and his friends and all the
dog family lost track of him entirely.

But Mr. 'Coon was tired of that kind of thing too, and wanted some
place where he could be comfortable, and where he could lock the door
nights and f