he
looked at it, and turned his face to the wall and said he seemed to have
lived in vain.

Mr. Crow, who always did the cooking, said he'd better put the chicken
on right away, under the circumstances, and then he remembered a bottle
of medicine he had once seen sitting on Mr. Man's window-sill outside,
and he said while the chicken was cooking he'd just step over and get
it, as it might do the patient good, and it didn't seem as if anything
now could do him any harm.

[Illustration: MR. CROW SAID IF MR. 'POSSUM WAS STILL WITH THEM NEXT
MORNING THEY WOULD SEND FOR ANOTHER DOCTOR]

So the Crow dressed the nice chicken and put it in the pot with the
dumplings, and while Mr. 'Coon dosed Mr. 'Possum with the hot herb tea
Mr. Crow slipped over to Mr. Man's house and watched a good chance
when the folks were at dinner, and got the bottle and came back with it
and found Mr. 'Possum taking a nap and the 'Coon setting the table; for
the dinner was about done and there was a delicious smell of dumplings
and chicken, which made Mr. 'Possum begin talking in his sleep about
starving to death in the midst of plenty. Then he woke up and seemed to
suffer a good deal, and the Crow gave him a dose of Mr. Man's medicine,
and said that if Mr. 'Possum was still with them next morning they'd
send for another doctor.

Mr. 'Possum took the medicine and choked on it, and when he could speak
said he wouldn't be with them. He could tell by his feelings, he said,
that he would never get through this day of torture, and he wanted to
say some last words. Then he said that he wanted the 'Coon to have his
Sunday suit, which was getting a little tight for him and would just
about fit Mr. 'Coon, and that he wanted the Crow to have his pipe and
toilet articles, to remember him by. He said he had tried to do well by
them since they had all lived together in the Hollow Tree, and he
supposed it would be hard for them to get along without him, but that
they would have to do the best they could. Then he guessed he'd try to
sleep a little, and closed his eyes. Mr. 'Coon looked at Mr. Crow and
shook his head, and they didn't feel like sitting down to dinner right
away, and pretty soon when they thought Mr. 'Possum was asleep they
slipped softly up to his room to see how sad it would seem without him.

Well, they had only been gone a minute when Mr. 'Possum woke up, for the
smell of that chicken and dumpling coming in from Mr. Crow's kitchen was
too much