ATCH.

After telling how Brother Bear learned to comb his hair, Mr. Rabbit
closed his eyes and seemed to be about to fall into a doze, as old
people have been known to do. During the pause that followed, Sweetest
Susan saw what appeared to be a bird of peculiar shape sailing around
in the sky of Mr. Thimblefinger's queer country.

It was long of body and seemed to have no wings, and yet it sailed
about overhead as majestically and easily as an eagle could have done.

"What sort of a bird is it?" inquired Sweetest Susan, pointing out the
object to Mrs. Meadows.

"Now, really, I don't know," was the reply. "They are so high in the
sky and I've seen them so often that I've never bothered my head about
them."

Mr. Thimblefinger climbed on the back of a chair, so as to get a
better view of the curious bird, but he shook his head and climbed
nimbly down again. The queer bird was too much for Mr. Thimblefinger.
Mr. Rabbit opened his eyes lazily and looked at it.

"If I'm not much mistaken--" he started to say, but Drusilla broke in
without any ceremony:--

"'T ain't nothin' 't all, but one er dem ar meller bugs what swims
roun' in de spring."

"Why, I expect it _is_ a mellow bug," said Mrs. Meadows, laughing. "I
used to catch them when I was a girl and put them in my handkerchief.
They smell just like a ripe apple."

"I thought it was a buzzard," said Buster John.

"No," remarked Mr. Rabbit, "I used to be well acquainted with Brother
Buzzard, and when he's in the air he's longer from side to side than
he is from end to end. I don't know when I've thought of Brother
Buzzard before. I never liked him much, but I used to see him sailing
around on sunshiny days, or sitting in the top of a dead pine drying
his wings after a heavy rain. He cut a very funny figure sitting up
there, with his wings spread out and drooping like a sick chicken.

[Illustration: LITTLE MR. THIMBLEFINGER]

"I remember the time, too, when he had a singing-match with Brother
Crow, and I nearly laughed myself to death over it."

"Oh, tell us about it," cried Buster John.

"There's nothing in it when it is told," replied Mr. Rabbit. "There
are some things that are funny when you see them, but not funny at all
when you come to tell about them."

"We don't mind that," said Sweetest Susan.

"I don't know exactly how it came about," resumed Mr. Rabbit, after a
pause, "but as near as I can remember, Brother Buzzard and Brother
Crow met with ea