er's appearance. It was this that had caused him
to struggle to be first through that hole under the henhouse. But once
through, he had felt a bit ashamed that he had been so undignified. He
wasn't afraid of Bowser. He was sorely tempted to turn around and send
Bowser about his business, as he knew he very well could. But he
thought better of it. Besides, Unc' Billy was already through that hole
in the floor, and Jimmy didn't for a minute forget what had brought him
there. He had come for eggs, and so had Unc' Billy. It would never do to
let Unc' Billy be alone up there for long. So Jimmy Skunk did what he
very seldom does--hurried. Yes, Sir, he hurried after Unc' Billy Possum.
He meant to make sure of his share of the eggs he was certain were up
there.

There was a row of nesting boxes along one side close to the floor.
Above these was another row and above these a third row. Jimmy doesn't
climb, but Unc' Billy is a famous climber.

"I'll take these lower nests," said Jimmy, and lifted his tail in a way
that made Unc' Billy nervous.

"All right," replied Unc' Billy promptly. "All right, Brer Skunk. It's
just as yo' say."

With this, Unc' Billy scrambled up to the next row of nests. Jimmy
grinned and started to look in the lower nests. He took his time about
it, for that is Jimmy's way. There was nothing in the first one and
nothing in the second one and nothing in the third one. This was
disappointing, to say the least, and Jimmy began to move a little
faster. Meanwhile Unc' Billy had hurried from one nest to another in the
second row with no better success. By the time Jimmy was half-way along
his row Unc' Billy bad begun on the upper row, and the only eggs he had
found were hard china nest-eggs put there by Farmer Brown's boy to tempt
the hens to lay in those particular nests. Disappointment was making
Unc' Billy lose his temper. Each time he peeped in a nest and saw one
of those china eggs, he hoped it was a real egg, and each time when he
found it wasn't he grew angrier.

At last he so lost his temper that when he found another of those eggs
he angrily kicked it out of the nest. Now it happened that Jimmy Skunk
was just underneath. Down fell that hard china egg squarely on Jimmy
Skunk's head. For just a minute Jimmy saw stars. At least, he thought he
did. Then he saw the egg, and knew that Unc' Billy had knocked it down,
and that it was this that had hit him. Jimmy was sore at heart because
he had found no eg