rs of his shrewd eyes. "What's
the news in the Green Forest?"

"There isn't any, that is, none to amount to anything," declared
Sammy. "I never did see such a dull summer. Is there any news down
here on the Green Meadows? I hear Danny Meadow Mouse has found his
lost baby."

"So I hear," replied Old Man Coyote. "I tried to find it for him. You
know I believe in being neighborly."

Sammy grinned, for as he said this, Old Man Coyote had winked one eye
ever so little, and Sammy knew very well that if he had found that
lost baby, Danny Meadow Mouse would never have seen him again. "By the
way," said Sammy in the most matter-of-fact tone, "as I was coming
through the Green Forest, I saw Peter Rabbit over on the hill where
Prickly Porky lives, and Peter seems to have been in some kind of
trouble. He was so lame that he said he didn't dare try to go home to
the Old Briar-patch for fear that he might meet some one looking for a
Rabbit dinner, and he knew that, feeling as he did, he wouldn't be
able to save himself. Peter is going to come to a bad end some day if
he doesn't watch out."

"That depends on what you call a bad end," replied Old Man Coyote with
a sly grin. "It might be bad for Peter and at the same time be very
good for some one else."

Sammy laughed right out. "That's one way of looking at it," said he.
"Well, I should hate to have anything happen to Peter, because I have
lots of fun quarreling with him and should miss him dreadfully. I
think I'll go up to the Old Orchard and see what is going on there."

Off flew Sammy in the direction of the Old Orchard, and once more he
chuckled as he flew. He had seen Old Man Coyote's ears prick up ever
so little when he had mentioned that Peter was over in the Green
Forest so lame that he didn't dare go home. "Old Man Coyote will start
for the Green Forest as soon as I am out of sight," thought Sammy. And
that is just what Old Man Coyote did.

XXII

OLD MAN COYOTE LOSES HIS APPETITE

Hardly was Sammy Jay out of sight, flying towards the Old Orchard,
before Old Man Coyote started for the Green Forest. He is very sharp,
is Old Man Coyote, so sharp that it is not very often that he is
fooled. If Sammy Jay had gone to him and told him what a splendid
chance he would have to catch Peter Rabbit if he hurried up to the
Green Forest right away, Old Man Coyote would have suspected a trick
of some kind. Sammy had been clever enough to know this. So he had
just mention