the big hollow tree in the Green Forest and worried
herself almost sick, because Unc' Billy didn't come home, and she
didn't know what might have happened to him.

Sometimes Unc' Billy wished that he was back in the old hollow tree,
and sometimes he was glad that he was right where he was. Sometimes
he felt little shivers of fear run all over him as he thought of what
might become of him if he should be found. Sometimes a little tickly
feeling of pleasure ran all over him, as he bit a hole in the end of a
freshly laid egg and sucked the egg out of the shell.

Now Unc' Billy was very, very crafty. He had found Jimmy Skunk's
tracks boldly leading up to the hen-house, so Unc' Billy had stepped
as carefully as he knew how in the footprints of Jimmy Skunk, in order
that Farmer Brown's boy might think that Jimmy Skunk was the only
visitor to the hen-house. But with all his craft, there was one thing
that Unc' Billy forgot. Yes, Sir, there was one thing Unc' Billy
forgot all about. He forgot to keep his tail up. He was trying so hard
to step in the footprints of Jimmy Skunk, that he forgot all about
that little, smooth, handy old tail of his, and he let it drag along
the snow.

[Illustration: He just ate and ate until he couldn't eat another one.]

When Unc' Billy was safely in the hen-house, he hurried from one nest
to another. There were eggs, plenty of them. It seemed to him that
nothing he had ever seen before had looked half so good as those eggs.
He just ate and ate and ate until he couldn't eat another one. Now a
full stomach is very apt to make a sleepy head. Unc' Billy knew that
the thing for him to do was to hurry home as fast as he could go, but
he didn't. No, Sir, he didn't do it. The hen-house was warm and here
were some of the nicest nests of hay. He was tired after his long walk
from the Green Forest, for Unc' Billy had done so little walking this
winter that he was rather out of practice. Why not take a teeny, weeny
nap before he started back home?

Unc' Billy climbed to the very last nest in the topmost row, way up in
a dark corner. It hadn't been used for a long time, but it was full of
nice, soft hay. Unc' Billy curled himself up in it, and with a great
sigh of contentment, closed his eyes for that teeny, weeny nap. He
didn't open them again until he heard an angry voice right close to
him. He peeped out. It was broad daylight, and there, just below him,
was Farmer Brown's boy, looking at the empty egg