gether, there sho'ly is gwine to
be something doing."

XXI

BOBBY COON HAS A BUSY DAY

Bobby Coon had left Ol' Mistah Buzzard sitting on his favorite dead tree.
Every few minutes Ol' Mistah Buzzard would chuckle. "Brer Coon is right
smart, and Ah reckon Unc' Billy Possum is gwine to get a taste of his own
medicine. Yes, Sah, Ah reckon he is!" said Ol' Mistah Buzzard. Then he
chuckled and chuckled, as he spread his broad wings and said: "Ah reckon Ah
better be up in the blue, blue sky where Ah can look right down and see all
the fun."

In the meantime Bobby Coon was hurrying back and forth across the Green
Meadows and through the Green Forest, calling on all the little people who
live there. He whispered a few words in the ear of one and then hurried on
to whisper to the next one. When Bobby would first begin to whisper, the
one to whom he was whispering would shake his head and look as if he didn't
believe a word of what Bobby was saying. Then Bobby would point to Ol'
Mistah Buzzard sailing 'round and 'round high up in the blue, blue sky
where everybody could see him, and whisper some more. When he got through,
he always carried away with him a promise that just what he had asked
should be done.

Bobby Coon had thought of a plan to turn the joke on Unc' Billy Possum, and
this was why he was hurrying back and forth whispering in the ears of every
one who lived on the Green Meadows and in the Green Forest; that is
everybody excepting Unc' Billy Possum and his family. It was the busiest
day that Bobby Coon could remember.

It was the very next morning that Unc' Billy Possum was trotting along the
Crooked Little Path down the hill. He was just starting out on his daily
round of calls, and he was grinning as only Unc' Billy Possum can grin.

"Mah name is Billy Possum and mah home's a hollow tree!
By day or night Ah wander forth--it's all the same to me!
Ah fill mah stomach with an egg, or sometimes it is fish;
In fact Ah always helps mahself to anything Ah wish.
Fo' mah name is Billy Possum and mah other name is Smart;
To catch yo' Uncle Billy yo' must make an early start."

Unc' Billy was singing this to himself as he trotted along the Crooked
Little Path, and all the time he was thinking of the great joke that he and
his old friend Mr. Mocker, from way down South, were playing on the little
people of the Green Meadows and the Green Forest.

This morning he was on his way to call first on John