that some one else should do the
work for him, and he is smart enough to fix it so that usually some
one else does.

But getting ready to receive his family was different. No one else
could arrange things to suit him. This was Unc' Billy's own job, and
he tended right to it every minute of the day. First of all he had to
clean house. He had been keeping bachelor's hall so long in the big
hollow tree that things were not very tidy. So Unc' Billy cleaned
house, and while he worked he whistled and sang. Peter Rabbit, passing
that way, overheard Unc' Billy singing:

"Mah ol' woman is away down Souf--
Come along! Come along!
Ain't nothin' sharper than the tongue in her mouf--
Come along! Come along!
She once was pretty, but she ain't no mo',
But she cooks mah meals an' she sweeps mah flo';
She darns mah stockings an' she mends mah coat,
An' she knows jes' how mah chillun fer to tote--
Come along! Come along!

"Mah pickaninnies am a-headin' dis way--
Come along! Come along!
Daddy am a-watchin' fo' 'em day by day--
Come along! Come along!
Mah ol' haid aches when Ah thinks ob de noise
De's boun' to be wid dem gals an' boys,
But Ah doan care if it busts in two
If de good Lord brings dem chillun troo--
Come along! Come along!"

Every little while Unc' Billy Possum would sit down to rest, for he
wasn't used to so much real work. But finally he got his house clean
and made as comfortable as possible, and about that time be began to
think how good an egg would taste. The more he thought about it, the
more he wanted that egg.

"It's no use talking, Ah just naturally has to have that egg," said
Unc' Billy to himself, and off he started for Farmer Brown's.

Now Unc' Billy was hardly out of sight when along came Bobby Coon.
Bobby Coon was absent-minded, or else he was so sleepy that he didn't
know what he was doing, for Bobby Coon had been out all night. Anyway,
when he reached Unc' Billy Possum's hollow tree, he began to climb up
it just as if it were his own. He looked in at Unc' Billy's door.
There was the most comfortable bed that he had seen for a long time.
He looked this way and he looked that way. Nobody was in sight. Then
he looked in at Unc' Billy's door once more. That bed certainly did
look soft and comfortable. Bobby Coon chuckled to himself.

"I believe I'll just see if that bed is as comfort