t Billy Woodchuck sat up on a
little hummock and watched him.

Pretty soon the boy saw Billy. And the moment he spied him he
stopped and pointed the long stick at the plump young chuck.

That made Billy Woodchuck smile. He was not the least bit afraid.
For if Johnnie Green should come nearer he intended to pop inside
his mother's door.

The next moment Billy Woodchuck heard a sound just above his
head--a sound like the sighing of the wind in the top of a pine
tree. He thought that was very queer, for there was no wind at all
that morning. And there was not a tree near him.

Then it thundered. And yet the sun was shining brightly and there
wasn't a cloud in the sky.

But as he looked once more at Johnnie Green he was astonished to
see a small cloud float from the end of that long stick and lose
itself in the air.

All at once Billy Woodchuck was frightened. He was afraid of
Johnnie Green, for he saw that it was Johnnie who made the wind
blow, and turned loose the thunder and the clouds. He noticed that
Johnnie was doing something to that strange stick; and he expected
that in another minute it would begin to rain. But he didn't wait
to see. He felt that he would be far safer indoors. So he scampered
straight home.

"What are you shaking for?" Mrs. Woodchuck asked, as Billy burst in
upon her.

"I'm frightened," her son told her. "I've just seen Johnnie Green
making thunder and wind and clouds."

"Be careful!" his mother said. "You know you are not allowed to
tell tales."

"But I _did_ see him," Billy insisted. "He pointed a stick at me,
and the wind blew and it thundered; and I saw a little white cloud
come right out of the end of the stick."

It was Mrs. Woodchuck's turn to be upset. And she shook even more
than Billy had as she said:

"My goodness, child! That was a gun! And it's a mercy you weren't
shot. Don't you stir out of this house again to-day--nor _you_, nor
_you_, nor _you_, nor _you_," she repeated, pointing to each of her
other children.

And though Johnnie Green waited for some time, to see if a black
head would not peep out of Mrs. Woodchuck's front door, nothing of
the sort happened until after the sun had set and the cows had all
gone home for the night. And by that time Johnnie Green was eating
his supper.

XIX

MR. WOODCHUCK MOVES

Mr. Woodchuck was annoyed. And he had good reason to be. The
weather was fine and he had planned to spend the whole day sunning
himself on a