we happened along just as it was going on. That fellow's
wide build didn't help him any against bees. Violet came out first,
pawing her nose with one hand, and knocking bees with the other. He
stayed to fight a little, but directly he rolled out, scratching and
pawing, and five minutes later his own mother wouldn't have known him,
he was so swelled. Violet looked at him, and then at me and Cousin
Redfield laughing at him, and I think would have deserted him for me,
then; but Violet herself had one eye closed, and her nose was the shape
and size of a reversed turnip. I saw then that I had never truly loved
her and had been wise to give her up. They left the country soon
afterwards and I don't know what became of them. That honey-tree blew
down one winter night about a year after, and then Cousin Redfield and I
went back and got some more honey, but not as much as we did after the
great war."

The Hollow Tree people hadn't said a word during Mr. 'Coon's story, but
when he had finished Mr. Dog said so far as he could see there was just
about as much sense in that war as there was in the one going on over on
the other side of the world, and that the war over there would very
likely end in about the same way.

But Mr. 'Possum said that Mr. 'Coon's war was a good deal better than
Mr. Man's, because, being so soon over, nothing but those silly fighting
bees was wasted; and for Mr. 'Coon and Cousin Redfield Bear to have
stayed out of it until there was no more fighting, and then go in and
carry off a wagon-load of honey, was probably the smartest thing they
had ever done in their lives.

FOOTNOTES:

[5] "Mr. Turtle's Thunder Story" in _The Hollow Tree and Deep Woods
Book_.

MR. CROW AND THE WHITEWASH

I

THE OLD BLACK CROW TRIES
A STRANGE EXPERIMENT

One very nice May morning when Mr. Crow went over to call on Jack
Rabbit, he found him whitewashing his back fence, and after Mr. Rabbit
had showed Mr. Crow how fine it looked when it was dry, he took him into
the kitchen, which he had whitewashed the day before, and Mr. Crow went
on about it and said it was the nicest thing he ever saw, and if he just
knew how, and had the things to do it with, he would whitewash his own
kitchen in the Hollow Tree.

Then Mr. Jack Rabbit said it was the easiest thing in the world--that
all one needed was a little quick-lime and some water and a brush, and
then some practice in putting it on so it would look nice and even