s ever he could, it was also true that Buster Bear had done the same
thing. He had run even faster than Farmer Brown's boy, and had hidden in
the most lonely place he could find in the very deepest part of the
Green Forest. It was hard to believe, but it was true. And right away
everybody lost a great deal of the respect for Buster which they had
felt. It is always that way. They began to say unkind things about him.
They said them among themselves, and some of them even said them to
Buster when they met him, or said them so that he would hear them.

Of course Blacky the Crow and Sammy Jay, who, because they can fly,
have nothing to fear from Buster, and who always delight in making other
people uncomfortable, never let a chance go by to tell Buster and
everybody else within hearing what they thought of him. They delighted
in flying about through the Green Forest until they had found Buster
Bear and then from the safety of the tree tops screaming at him.

"Buster Bear is big and strong;
His teeth are big; his claws are long;
In spite of these he runs away
And hides himself the livelong day!"

A dozen times a day Buster would hear them screaming this. He would
grind his teeth and glare up at them, but that was all he could do. He
couldn't get at them. He just had to stand it and do nothing. But when
impudent little Chatterer the Red Squirrel shouted the same thing from
a place just out of reach in a big pine-tree, Buster could stand it no
longer. He gave a deep, angry growl that made little shivers run over
Chatterer, and then suddenly he started up that tree after Chatterer.
With a frightened little shriek Chatterer scampered to the top of the
tree. He hadn't known that Buster could climb. But Buster is a splendid
climber, especially when the tree is big and stout as this one was, and
now he went up after Chatterer, growling angrily.

How Chatterer did wish that he had kept his tongue still! He ran to the
very top of the tree, so frightened that his teeth chattered, and when
he looked down and saw Buster's great mouth coming nearer and nearer, he
nearly tumbled down with terror. The worst of it was there wasn't
another tree near enough for him to jump to. He was in trouble this
time, was Chatterer, sure enough! And there was no one to help him.

XVI

CHATTERER THE RED SQUIRREL JUMPS FOR HIS LIFE

It isn't very often that Chatterer the Red Squirrel knows fear. That is
one reason that he is so ofte