d Mrs. Possum, sticking her sharp little face out of the doorway.

"Yas'm, yas'm, Ah was just aiming to do that very thing," replied Unc'
Billy meekly, as he scrambled to his feet.

Just then out tumbled his eight children, making such a racket that Unc'
Billy clapped both hands over his ears. "Mah goodness gracious sakes
alive!" he exclaimed. One pulled Unc' Billy's tail. Two scrambled up on
his back. In two minutes Unc' Billy was down on the ground, rolling and
tumbling in the maddest kind of a frolic with his eight children.

Right in the midst of it Unc' Billy sprang to his feet. His eyes were
shining, and his funny little ears were pricked up. "Hush, yo'alls!" he
commanded. "How do yo'alls think Ah can hear anything with yo'alls making
such a racket?" He boxed the ears of one and shook another, and then, when
all were still, he stood with his right hand behind his right ear,
listening and listening.

"Ah cert'nly thought Ah heard the voice of an ol' friend from way down
Souf! Ah cert'nly did!" he muttered, and without another word he started
off into the Green Forest, more excited than he had been since his family
came up from "Ol' Virginny."

III

UNC' BILLY'S VAIN SEARCH

Unc' Billy Possum was excited. Any one would have known it just to look at
him. He hurried off up the Lone Little Path through the Green Forest
without even saying good-by to old Mrs. Possum and all the little Possums.
They just stared after Unc' Billy and didn't know what to make of it, for
such a thing as Unc' Billy forgetting to say good-by had never happened
before. Yes, indeed, Unc' Billy certainly was excited.

Old Mrs. Possum sat in the doorway of their home in the great hollow tree
and watched Unc' Billy out of sight. Her sharp little eyes seemed to grow
sharper as she watched. "Ah done sent that no-account Possum to hunt fo'
something fo' dinner, but 'pears to me he's plumb forgot it already," she
muttered. "Just look at him with his head up in the air like he thought
dinner fo' we uns would drap right down to him out o' the sky! If he's
aiming to find a bird's nest with eggs in it this time o' year, he sho'ly
am plumb foolish in his haid. No, Sah! That onery Possum has clean
fo'gotten what Ah just done tole him, and if we uns am going to have any
dinner, Ah cert'nly have got to flax 'round right smart spry mahself!"

Old Mrs. Possum chased the eight little Possums into the house and warned
them not to so much as put th