in vain.

"Ha!" he exclaimed at last. "This is stupid of me! I'm trying to unbutton
the wrong row of buttons." Then he fumbled with one of the buttons of the
other row. But strange to say, he was no more successful than before. He
struggled with all the buttons in that row (there were five of them). And
then he tried the other five, one after another.

Mr. Crow couldn't understand it. He wanted more than ever to take the
coat off, because his efforts to unbutton it had made him quite warm.

"I shall have get somebody to help me," he said at last. "It may be that
my eyesight is failing--though I haven't noticed before that there was
anything the matter with it.... There's my cousin, Jasper Jay! I'll ask
him to unbutton my coat." And he called to Jasper, who had just alighted
on a stump not far away.

To Mr. Crow's dismay, his cousin refused to assist him.

"I know you too well," said Jasper Jay. "You want to play some trick on
me. If the buttons were on the back of your coat I might help you. But
they're right in front of you; and they're so big that a blind person
couldn't help finding them, even on the darkest night.... No! You can't
fool me this time!"

"Very well!" Mr. Crow croaked. "If you won't help me, there are plenty of
other people who'll be glad to." And he flew away in something very like
a temper.

To Mr. Crow's surprise he couldn't find anyone that would unbutton his
new coat for him; like Jasper Jay, everybody was afraid that Mr. Crow
meant to play a trick on him.

Mr. Crow was beginning to be frightened. He had called on all his friends
in Pleasant Valley except one. And if that one should refuse, Mr. Crow
didn't know what he could do. He had liked his spotted coat. But now he
began to hate it. And he wanted to slip out of it and never see it again.

So Mr. Crow hurried over to the swamp where Fatty Coon lived.

XVII

THE STRANGE BUTTONS

To Mr. Crow's delight, it did not occur to Fatty Coon that Mr. Crow might
be playing a trick on him. You see, as was usually the case, Fatty was
hungry. And he had no thought for anything except food. When Mr. Crow
explained what a fix he was in, and asked Fatty to unbutton his coat for
him, Fatty stepped up to him at once.

But he didn't try to unbutton the coat. He sniffed at the buttons, while
his face wore a puzzled look. And then he began to smile.

"I'll tell you what I'll do!" Fatty said. "If you'll give me these
buttons, I'll take them of