isappeared inside his house. Unc' Billy scratched his head with one hand
and then with the other, and all the time his face grew more and more
puzzled-looking. After a while he started on. Pretty soon he came to where
Danny Meadow Mouse was playing all by himself. He didn't know that Unc'
Billy was about until Unc' Billy said: "Good mo'ning, Brer Meadow Mouse."

Now Danny had always been delighted to see Unc' Billy Possum and to have a
chat with him whenever Unc' Billy would stop. But this morning no sooner
did Danny hear Unc' Billy's voice than he turned his back to Unc' Billy.
This was more than Unc' Billy could stand. He reached out to take Danny
Meadow Mouse by the ear to turn him around, but somehow Danny must have
guessed what Unc' Billy meant to do, for without a word he ducked out of
sight under the long grass, and hunt as he would Unc' Billy couldn't find
him.

So Unc' Billy Possum gave it up and went on down to the Smiling Pool. There
Little Joe Otter and Billy Mink and Jerry Muskrat were at play. They saw
Unc' Billy coming, and when he reached the bank of the Smiling Pool there
sat the three little scamps on the Big Rock, but all he could see was their
backs.

"Hello, yo'alls!" shouted Unc' Billy.

Splash! All three had dived into the Smiling Pool, and though Unc' Billy
waited and waited, he didn't see one of them again. Even Grandfather Frog
turned his back to him and seemed very deaf that morning, though Unc' Billy
tried and tried to make him hear.

All day long, wherever he went, Unc' Billy saw only the backs of his
friends, and none of them seemed to see him at all. So he went home to his
hollow tree in the Green Forest early that day to try and study out what it
all meant.

XXIII

UNC' BILLY POSSUM CONSULTS OL' MISTAH BUZZARD

Ol' Mistah Buzzard has very sharp eyes. Nobody has sharper eyes than he.
Swinging 'round and 'round and 'round and 'round in great circles way up in
the blue, blue sky, so high that sometimes he looks like nothing but a
little speck, he looks down and sees everything going on in the Green
Meadows and a great deal that goes on in the Green Forest. There is very
little that Ol' Mistah Buzzard misses. So all the day that Unc' Billy
Possum had been tramping over the Green Meadows and through the Green
Forest and finding everybody's back turned to him, Ol' Mistah Buzzard had
been watching and laughing fit to kill himself. You see he knew all about
Bobby Coon's visit to