he sho'ly is, and he's plumb full of his ol' tricks, just like
he used to be," muttered Unc' Billy.

"What's that?" asked Peter, pricking up his ears.

"Nothing, nothing, Brer Rabbit, nothing at all. Ah has a habit of just
talking foolishness to mahself," replied Unc' Billy.

Peter looked at him sharply, but Unc' Billy's shrewd little face looked so
innocent that Peter was ashamed to doubt what Unc' Billy said.

"I guess that we better not talk any more, for fear we might be heard and
have our watch for nothing," said Peter.

Unc' Billy agreed, and side by side they sat as still as if they were made
of wood or stone. The black shadows came early to the alders beside the
Laughing Brook, and soon it was very dark, so dark that Peter and Unc'
Billy, whose eyes are meant for seeing in the dark as well as in the light,
had hard work to make out much. It grew later and later, and still there
was not a sound of the voice of either Sammy Jay or Sticky-toes the Tree
Toad. Peter began to get hungry. The more he thought about it, the hungrier
he grew. He was just about ready to give it up, when the moonbeams began to
creep in among the alder trees just as they had crept through the Green
Forest the night that Sammy Jay kept awake all night.

The moonbeams crept farther and farther into the thicket of alder trees and
bushes where Peter Rabbit and Unc' Billy Possum were hiding. Then it was
that they heard the voice of Sticky-toes the Tree Toad. At any rate, Peter
was sure that it was the voice of Sticky-toes until a fierce, angry whisper
came down to him from the branch of an alder just over his head. Peter
looked up. There sat Sticky-toes himself, but his voice was coming from an
alder on the other side of the Laughing Brook.

"Do you hear that? Do you hear that? There's my voice over there, and here
I am here! What do you make of it?" whispered Sticky-toes.

Peter didn't know what to make of it. All he could do was to gaze at
Sticky-toes as if he thought Sticky-toes was a ghost. Just then the voice
of Sammy Jay, or what sounded for all the world like Sammy's voice,
screamed "Thief! thief! thief!" from the very spot where they had just
heard the voice of Sticky-toes.

Peter turned to ask Unc' Billy Possum what he thought, but Unc' Billy
wasn't there.

XVI

UNC' BILLY POSSUM DOES A LITTLE SURPRISING HIMSELF

When Unc' Billy Possum first heard what sounded like the voice of
Sticky-toes the Tree Toad, he had thou