c'
Billy Possum couldn't think of anything else. He knew well enough
where Jimmy had found those eggs. Yes, indeed, Unc' Billy knew all
about it. He could shut his eyes and just see the inside of Farmer
Brown's hen-house with the rows of hens and roosters sitting on the
roosts at one end, their heads tucked under their wings. He could see
the rows of nests and the beautiful brown eggs in them. Jimmy Skunk
couldn't climb, and so he could have gotten only the eggs in the lower
nests. Now if he, Unc' Billy, had been there, he could have climbed to
the very topmost nest and--but what was the use of thinking about it?
He hadn't been there, and he couldn't go now, because it was daylight.

All the rest of the day Unc' Billy tried to sleep, but when he did
sleep he dreamed about eggs, nice, fresh, delicious eggs, and when he
was awake he though about eggs. It made him more and more uneasy and
fidgety. Old Mrs. Possum couldn't stand it.

"What all am the matter with yo'?" she snapped. "Ah do wish yo' would
keep still a minute!"

Unc' Billy muttered something, but all that Mrs. Possum could hear was
"eggs."

"Now don't yo'all get to thinking of such foolishness as eggs," she
commanded. "It isn't safe to be snooping around Farmer Brown's
hen-house when there's snow on the ground. Yo' just fo'get all about
eggs! Do yo' hear what Ah say?"

Unc' Billy nodded that he did. But just the same he couldn't think of
anything else. He knew that old Mrs. Possum was right, and that it
wasn't safe to go fooling around Farmer Brown's hen-house and leaving
his tracks for everybody who came along to see. Just the same, Unc'
Billy felt that he had got to have a nice fresh egg. He had got to
have it. That is all there was about it.

As soon as jolly, round, red Mr. Sun had gone to bed behind the Purple
Hills that night, Unc' Billy crept out of his home in the hollow tree.

"Where are yo' going?" demanded Mrs. Possum.

"Just to stretch the kinks out of mah legs," replied Unc' Billy.

Old Mrs. Possum looked after him suspiciously. "Don't yo' go fo' to do
any foolishness!" she called.

Unc' Billy didn't answer. He was on his way to Farmer Brown's
hen-house.

XVI

WHY UNC' BILLY POSSUM DIDN'T GO HOME

Unc' Billy Possum had a very good reason for not going home, a very good
reason, indeed. Even old Mrs. Possum would have thought it was a good
reason, could she have known it. But she didn't know it, and so she
sat in the home in