Fox bounding off across the meadow Jimmy had
started at once for Farmer Green's vegetable garden.

So Solomon Owl was the last to leave.

"There's really nothing else I can do," he remarked to himself. "I don't
know what Aunt Polly Woodchuck would say if she knew that I didn't follow
her advice to-night and eat a pullet for my supper.... But I've tried my
best.... And that's all anybody can do."

Solomon Owl was upset all the rest of that night. And just before daybreak
he visited the farmyard again, to see whether the strange man with the
flaring head still watched the chicken house. And Solomon found that he
had vanished.

So Solomon Owl alighted on the fence. There was nothing there except a
hollowed-out pumpkin, with a few holes cut in it, which someone had left
on one of the fence-posts.

"Good!" said he. "Maybe I can get my pullet after all!" He turned to fly
to the chicken house. But just then the woodshed door opened again. And
Farmer Green stepped outside, with a lantern in his hand. He was going to
the barn to milk the cows. But Solomon Owl did not wait to learn anything
more.

He hurried away to his house among the hemlocks. And having quickly
settled himself for a good nap, he was soon fast asleep.

That was how Johnnie Green's jack-o'-lantern kept Tommy Fox and Fatty Coon
and Solomon Owl from taking any chickens on Hallowe'en.

X
A TROUBLESOME WISHBONE

Solomon Owl had pains--sharp pains--underneath his waistcoat. And not
knowing what else to do, he set off at once for Aunt Polly Woodchuck's
house under the hill, in the pasture, which he had not visited since the
previous fall. Luckily, he found the old lady at home. And quickly he told
her of his trouble.

"What have you been eating?" she inquired.

"I've followed your advice. I've been eating chickens," said he--"very
small chickens, because they were all I could get."

Aunt Polly Woodchuck, who was an herb doctor--and a good one--regarded him
through her spectacles.

"I'm afraid," said she, "you don't chew your food properly. Bolting one's
food is very harmful. It's as bad as not eating anything at all, almost."

Solomon Owl showed plainly that her remark surprised him.

"Why," he exclaimed, "I always swallow my food whole--when it isn't too
big!"

"Gracious me!" cried Aunt Polly, throwing up both her hands. "It's no
wonder you're ill. It's no wonder you have pains; and now I know exactly
what's the matter with you. You ha