ch other early one morning in a big pine-tree. They
howdied, but there was a sort of coolness between them on account of
the fact that Brother Buzzard had been going about the neighborhood
making his brags and his boasts that he could outfly Brother Crow.
They hadn't been up in the tree very long before they began to
dispute. Brother Buzzard was not a very loud talker in those days,
whatever he may be now, but Brother Crow could squall louder than a
woman who has been married twenty-two years. And so there they had it,
quarreling and disputing and disturbing the peace."

"What were they quarreling about?" Buster John inquired.

"Well," replied Mr. Rabbit, "you know the road that leads to Brag is
the shortest route to Bluster. Brother Buzzard and Brother Crow were
quarreling because they had been bragging, and a little more and
they'd have had a regular pitched battle then and there.

"'Maybe you can outfly me, Brother Buzzard,' says Mr. Crow, 'but I'll
be bound you can't outsing me.'

"'I have never tried,' says Brother Buzzard, says he.

"'Well, suppose you try it now,' says Brother Crow. 'I'll go you a
fine suit of clothes, and a cocked hat to boot, that I can sit here
and sing longer than you can,' says he.

"'Oh, ho!' says Brother Buzzard, 'you may sing louder, but you can't
sing longer than I can,' says he.

"'Is it a go?' says Brother Crow.

"'It's a go,' says Brother Buzzard, says he.

"'It's no fair bet,' says Brother Crow, 'because you are a bigger man
than I am, and it stands to reason that you have got more wind in
your craw than I have, but I shall give you one trial if I split my
gizzard,' says he.

"Yes," remarked Mr. Rabbit, scratching his head thoughtfully, "those
were the very words he used--'if I split my gizzard,' says he. Well,
they shook hands to ratify the bet, and then Brother Crow, without
making any flourishes, raised the tune,--

"'Oh, Susy, my Susy, gangloo!
Oh, Milly, my Molly, langloo!'

"Then Brother Buzzard flung his head back and chimed in,--

"'Oh, Susy, my Susy, gangloo!
Oh, Milly, my Molly, langloo!'

and such another racket as they made I never heard before, and have
never heard since."

"Why, what kind of a song was it?" inquired Sweetest Susan. "I'm sure
I never heard such a song."

"Well," replied Mr. Rabbit, "you are young and I am old, but you know
just as much about that song as I do, and maybe more than I do, for
you haven't been pestered w