leep where Jimmy could have caught her, and satisfied of this, he would
have gone about his usual morning work of feeding the hens but for one
thing. That one thing was the china nest-egg on the floor.

"Hello!" exclaimed Farmer Brown's boy when he saw it. "Now how did that
come there? It must be that Jimmy Skunk pulled it out of one of those
lower nests."

Now he knew just which nests had contained nest-eggs, and it didn't take
but a minute to find that none was missing in any of the lower nests.
"That's queer," he muttered. "That egg must have come from one of the
upper nests. Jimmy couldn't have got up to those. None of the hens could
have kicked it out last night, because they were all on the roosts when
I shut them up. They certainly didn't do it this morning, because they
wouldn't have dared leave the roosts with Jimmy Skunk here. I'll have to
look into this."

So he began with the second row of nests and looked in each. Then he
started on the upper row, and so he came to the nest in which Unc' Billy
Possum was hiding under the hay and holding his breath. Now Unc' Billy
had covered himself up pretty well with the hay, but he had forgotten
one thing; he had forgotten his tail. Yes, Sir, Unc' Billy had forgotten
his tail, and it hung just over the edge of the nest. Of course, Farmer
Brown's boy saw it. He couldn't help but see it.

"Ho, ho!" he exclaimed right away. "Ho, ho! So there was more than one
visitor here last night. This henhouse seems to be a very popular place.
I see that the first thing for me to do after breakfast is to nail a
board over that hole in the floor. So it was you, Unc' Billy Possum, who
kicked that nest-egg out. Found it a little hard for your teeth, didn't
you? Lost your temper and kicked it out, didn't you? That was foolish,
Unc' Billy, very foolish indeed. Never lose your temper over trifles. It
doesn't pay. Now I wonder what I'd better do with you."

All this time Unc' Billy hadn't moved. Of course, he couldn't understand
what Farmer Brown's boy was saying. Nor could he see what Farmer Brown's
boy was doing. So he held his breath and hoped and hoped that he hadn't
been discovered. And perhaps he wouldn't have been but for that
telltale nest-egg on the floor. That was the cause of all his troubles.
First it had angered Jimmy Skunk because as you remember, it had fallen
on Jimmy's head. Then it had led Farmer Brown's boy to look in all the
nests. It had seemed a trifle, kicking that e