shed off
of Uncle Silas and the hired man, and Aunt Melissy lost her umbrella,
and I lost a toy chicken, which I could never find again. Then all at
once there was a big sudden jerk that jarred Uncle Silas loose, and made
Aunt Melissy holler that she was killed, and knocked the breath out of
the rest of us for a few minutes.

"But we were all there, and the anchor was fast on the limb of a big
tree--a tree almost as big as the Hollow Tree, and hollow, just like it,
with a nice handy place to go in.

"So when we got our senses back we picked up all our things that we
could find, and moved into the new place, and Aunt Melissy looked at the
clock, which was still running, and it was just a little over two hours
since we started.

"Then pretty soon we heard Mr. Man and his friends who had been up in
the balloon coming, and we stayed close inside till they had taken the
anchor and everything away, and after that, when it was getting dark,
Uncle Silas and the hired man went out and found, not very far off,
where there were some nice chickens that roosted in handy places, and
brought home two or three, and Aunt Melissy set up the stove and cooked
up a good supper, and we all sat around the kitchen fire, and the storm
that the east wind had been blowing up came along sure enough and it
rained all night, but we were snug and dry, and went to sleep mostly in
beds made down on the floor, and lay there listening to the rain and
thinking what a nice journey we'd had and what a good new home we'd
found.

"And it _was_ a good place, for I lived there till I grew up, and if I'm
not mistaken some of Uncle Silas's and Aunt Melissy's children live
there still. I haven't heard from any of them for a long time, but I am
thinking of going on a visit over that way in the spring, and if that
balloon is still running I'm going to travel with it.

"And that," said Mr. 'Possum, "is a true story--all true, every word,
for I was there."

Nobody said anything for a minute or two after Mr. 'Possum had finished
his story--nobody _could_ say anything.

Then Mr. Rabbit coughed a little and remarked that he was glad that Mr.
'Possum said that the story was true, for no one would ever have
suspected it. He said if Mr. 'Possum hadn't said it was true he would
have thought it was one of those pleasant dreams that Mr. 'Possum had
when he slept hanging to a peg head down.

[Illustration: MR. TURTLE SAID THAT WHAT MR. 'POSSUM HAD TOLD THEM WAS
TRUE]