t that he was afraid, very much afraid.

Everybody leaned forward to watch him. "What did I tell you? Didn't I
say that he was afraid of Buster Bear?" cried Little Joe Otter, dancing
about with excitement.

"You were right, Little Joe! I'm sorry that I doubted it. See him go!
Caw, caw, caw!" shrieked Blacky the Crow.

For a minute or two everybody forgot about Buster Bear. Then there was a
great crash which made everybody turn to look the other way. What do you
think they saw? Why, Buster Bear was running away too, and he was
running twice as fast as Farmer Brown's boy! He bumped into trees and
crashed through bushes and jumped over logs, and in almost no time at
all he was out of sight. Altogether it was the most surprising thing
that the little people of the Green Forest ever had seen.

[Illustration: Buster Bear was running away, too. Page _71_.]

Sammy Jay looked at Blacky the Crow, and Blacky looked at Chatterer,
and Chatterer looked at Happy Jack, and Happy Jack looked at Peter
Rabbit, and Peter looked at Unc' Billy Possum, and Unc' Billy looked at
Bobby Coon, and Bobby looked at Johnny Chuck, and Johnny looked at Reddy
Fox, and Reddy looked at Jimmy Skunk, and Jimmy looked at Billy Mink,
and Billy looked at Little Joe Otter, and for a minute nobody could say
a word. Then Little Joe gave a funny little gasp.

"Why, why-e-e!" said he, "I believe Buster Bear is afraid too!" Unc'
Billy Possum chuckled. "Ah believe yo' are right again, Brer Otter,"
said he. "It cert'nly does look so. If Brer Bear isn't scared, he must
have remembered something impo'tant and has gone to attend to it in a
powerful hurry."

Then everybody began to laugh.

XV

BUSTER BEAR IS A FALLEN HERO

A fallen hero is some one to whom every one has looked up as very brave
and then proves to be less brave than he was supposed to be. That was
the way with Buster Bear. When Little Joe Otter had told how Farmer
Brown's boy had been afraid at the mere sight of one of Buster Bear's
big footprints, they had at once made a hero of Buster. At least some of
them had. As this was the first time, the very first time, that they had
ever known any one who lives in the Green Forest to make Farmer Brown's
boy run away, they looked on Buster Bear with a great deal of respect
and were very proud of him.

But now they had seen Buster Bear and Farmer Brown's boy meet face to
face; and while it was true that Farmer Brown's boy had run away as fast
a