rt
Reddy Fox, the boaster.

So they waited all the long day for the coming of Unc' Billy Possum's
family, and when at last they did arrive, there was the merriest
surprise party ever seen. Only Sammy Jay, Blacky the Crow, Reddy Fox
and Shadow the Weasel were unhappy, and of course no one cared for
that.

XIII

UNC' BILLY POSSUM GROWS HUNGRY

Unc' Billy Possum spent the very coldest days of winter curled up in
his warm, snug home in the big hollow tree in the Green Forest. Unc'
Billy didn't like the cold weather. Sometimes he would stick his head
out of his doorway and then, as he heard rough Brother North Wind
whooping through the Green Forest, he would turn right around and go
back to his bed for another nap. And all the time he would be saying:

"Way down Souf de sun am shinin'--
Yas, Sah, dat am so!
Fo' dat lan' mah heart am pinin'--
Yas, Sah, dat am so!

"De mocking-bird he sings all day,
De alligators am at play,
De flowers dey am bloomin' fair,
And mah heart aches to be down there--
Yas, Sah, dat am so!"

Now Unc' Billy had prepared for the winter by getting just as fat as
he knew how. He was so fat that he could hardly waddle when Jack Frost
first came to the Green Forest. You see he knew that if he was very,
very fat he wouldn't have to worry about getting anything to eat, not
for a long time, anyway. So when the ice and snow came, and Unc' Billy
decided that it was more comfortable indoors than outdoors, he was
almost as fat as Johnny Chuck was when he went to sleep for the long
winter.

Now Johnny Chuck just slept and slept and slept, without waking once
the whole winter long. But Unc' Billy Possum couldn't sleep like that.
He had to stick his head out every little while to see how the world
was getting along without him. When the sun was bright and the air was
not too cold, Unc' Billy would sometimes climb down from his hollow
tree and walk about a little on the snow. But he didn't enjoy it much.
It made his feet cold, and then he didn't like the tracks he made. He
scowled at them, for he knew well enough that if Farmer Brown's boy
should happen along, he would know right away who had made those
tracks, and then he would hunt for Unc' Billy's home in the hollow
tree. So Unc' Billy didn't go out very much, and very seldom indeed
when the snow was soft.

It seemed to Unc' Billy Possum as if the winter never, never would go.
He was beginning