ast, however, something happened to put an end to his lazy way of
living. One day the sound of men's voices awakened him, when he was having
a good nap in the haystack. And he felt his bedroom quiver as if an
earthquake had shaken it.

Scrambling to his doorway and peeping slyly out, Solomon saw a sight that
made him very angry. A hayrack stood alongside the stack; and on it stood
Farmer Green and his hired man. Each had a pitchfork in his hands, with
which he tore great forkfuls of hay off the stack and piled it upon the
wagon.

Solomon Owl knew then that his fine hiding place was going to be spoiled.
As soon as the horses had pulled the load of hay away, with Farmer Green
and the hired man riding on top of it, Solomon Owl crept out of his snug
bedroom and hurried off to the woods.

He was so fat that it was several days before he could squeeze inside his
old home in the hollow hemlock. And for the time being he had to sit on a
limb and sleep in the daylight as best he could.

But to his surprise, Reddy Woodpecker troubled him no more. Reddy had
drummed so hard on Solomon's door, in the effort to awake him when he
wasn't there, that Aunt Polly Woodchuck told him he would ruin his bill,
if he didn't look out. And since the warning thoroughly alarmed him, Reddy
stopped visiting the hemlock grove.

In time Solomon Owl grew to look like himself again. And people never
really knew just what had happened to him. But they noticed that he always
hooted angrily whenever anybody mentioned Farmer Green's name.

THE END

***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE TALE OF SOLOMON OWL***

CREDITS

May 2005

Project Gutenberg Edition
Roger Frank Online Distributed Proofreading Team

June 2006

Added PGHeader/PGFooter.
Joshua Hutchinson

A WORD FROM PROJECT GUTENBERG

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