nother match. "I'll slip on my
coat and get into bed." But his warm coat with the fur collar was gone,
too. "Chee, chee, chee," he seemed to hear a faint sound almost like the
squirrel he was fond of frightening. "I take back my skin!"

But he did find some cotton stockings and some old overalls. These he
put on relieved to find they had metal buttons. Then poor Silly Will
crawled back to bed wearing his cotton clothes and waited for morning to
come. He didn't sleep much for the wire spring cut into him. He was
cold, too.

As soon as it was light he hunted around for more clothes. He found some
straw bed-room slippers. His rubbers too were there and he put them on
over his slippers. Then he ran downstairs to get something to eat.

"Anyway," he thought, "those old animals can't get me when it comes to
eating. I never did care much about meat."

The pantry door squeaked as he opened it. It sounded for all the world
like a far away barnyard--hens, cows, and pigs. He looked around. No
milk, no eggs, no bacon! "Bread and butter will do me," he thought.

But the butter had gone too! He opened the bread box. The bread was
still there! He almost wept from relief. By hunting around he found a
good deal to eat. Cocoa made with water instead of milk was pretty good.
Then there were crackers and apples. His oatmeal wasn't very good
without milk or butter. But he ate it. He knew he would have plenty of
vegetables and fruits and cereals.

And the day was warm enough so that he didn't mind his cotton clothes.
But his feet did hurt him. He wondered about wooden shoes and thought he
would try to make some.

He was a little worried too about his bed. He hunted around in the house
until he found two cotton comforters. One he put under his sheet in
place of his mattress and one on top in place of his blankets. So, on
the whole, he thought, he could manage to get along.

Poor little Silly Will! He had never before thought how much the animals
did for him. Once in a while he would think of the little girl and the
old woman and the man he had met that afternoon. But not for long. And
he never remembered that some time winter would come. But long before
that time came, Silly Will had got himself into still more trouble. For
even now he didn't understand!

PART 2

From this time on nothing went well with Silly Will. When he had eaten
the vegetables he had in the house he walked over to a gardener who
lived nearby. He wanted to get