how it happened that no
one saw him or heard him until just as Farmer Brown's boy stepped out
from behind one side of a thick little hemlock-tree, Buster Bear stepped
out from behind the other side of that same little tree, and there they
were face to face! Then everybody held their breath, even Blacky the
Crow and Sammy Jay. For just a little minute it was so still there in
the Green Forest that not the least little sound could be heard. What
was going to happen?

XIV

A SURPRISING THING HAPPENS

Blacky the Crow and Sammy Jay, looking down from the top of a tall tree,
held their breath. Happy Jack the Gray Squirrel and his cousin,
Chatterer the Red Squirrel, looking down from another tree, held _their_
breath. Unc' Billy Possum, sticking his head out from a hollow tree,
held _his_ breath. Bobby Coon, looking through a hole in a hollow stump
in which he was hiding, held _his_ breath. Reddy Fox, lying flat down
behind a heap of brush, held _his_ breath. Peter Rabbit, sitting bolt
upright under a thick hemlock branch, with eyes and ears wide open, held
_his_ breath. And all the other little people who happened to be where
they could see did the same thing.

You see, it was the most exciting moment ever was in the Green Forest.
Farmer Brown's boy had just stepped out from behind one side of a little
hemlock-tree and Buster Bear had just stepped out from behind the
opposite side of the little hemlock-tree and neither had known that the
other was anywhere near. For a whole minute they stood there face to
face, gazing into each other's eyes, while everybody watched and waited,
and it seemed as if the whole Green Forest was holding its breath.

Then something happened. Yes, Sir, something happened. Farmer Brown's
boy opened his mouth and yelled! It was such a sudden yell and such a
loud yell that it startled Chatterer so that he nearly fell from his
place in the tree, and it made Reddy Fox jump to his feet ready to run.
And that yell was a yell of fright. There was no doubt about it, for
with the yell Farmer Brown's boy turned and ran for home, as no one ever
had seen him run before. He ran just as Peter Rabbit runs when he has
got to reach the dear Old Briar-patch before Reddy Fox can catch him,
which, you know, is as fast as he can run. Once he stumbled and fell,
but he scrambled to his feet in a twinkling, and away he went without
once turning his head to see if Buster Bear was after him. There wasn't
any doub