r Brown's boy went back and picked up his rod. Then he
started for home across the Green Meadows, and for once he wasn't
whistling. You see, he was too busy thinking. In fact, he was so busy
thinking that he didn't see Jimmy Skunk until he almost stepped on him,
and then he gave a frightened jump and ran, for without a gun he was
just as much afraid of Jimmy as Jimmy was of him when he did have a gun.

Jimmy just grinned and went on about his business. It always tickles
Jimmy to see people run away from him, especially people so much bigger
than himself; they look so silly.

"I should think that they would have learned by this time that if
they don't bother me, I won't bother them," he muttered, as he rolled
over a stone to look for fat beetles. "Somehow, folks never seem to
understand me."

[Illustration]

VII

FARMER BROWN'S BOY GETS ANOTHER SURPRISE

Across the Old Pasture to the foot of the Mountain back of the Green
Forest tramped Farmer Brown's boy. Ahead of him trotted Bowser the
Hound, sniffing and snuffing for the tracks of Reddy or Granny Fox. Of
course he didn't find them, for Reddy and Granny hadn't been up in the
Old Pasture for a long time. But he did find old Jed Thumper, the big
gray Rabbit who had made things so uncomfortable for Peter Rabbit once
upon a time, and gave him such a fright that old Jed didn't look where
he was going and almost ran headfirst into Farmer Brown's boy.

"Hi, there, you old cottontail!" yelled Farmer Brown's boy, and this
frightened Old Jed still more, so that he actually ran right past his
own castle of bullbriars without seeing it.

Farmer Brown's boy kept on his way, laughing at the fright of old Jed
Thumper. Presently he reached the springs from which came the water that
made the very beginning of the Laughing Brook. He expected to find them
dry, for way down on the Green Meadows the Smiling Pool was nearly dry,
and the Laughing Brook was nearly dry, and he had supposed that of
course the reason was that the springs where the Laughing Brook started
were no longer bubbling.

But they were! The clear cold water came bubbling up out of the ground
just as it always had, and ran off down into the Green Forest in a
little stream that would grow and grow as it ran and become the Laughing
Brook. Farmer Brown's boy took off his ragged old straw hat and scowled
down at the bubbling water just as if he thought it had no business to
be bubbling there.

Of course, h