k and
cranny of his one-room house, he did not find him.

"He must have left as soon as it stopped raining," said Solomon Owl to
himself. "He might at least have waited to thank me for giving him a day's
lodging. It's the last time I'll ever bring any worthless vagabond into my
house. And I ought to have known better than to have anything to do with a
crazy person like Benjamin Bat."

Anybody can see that Solomon Owl was displeased. But it was not at all
astonishing, if one stops to remember how hungry he was, and that he had
expected to enjoy a good meal without the trouble of going away from home
to get it.

Solomon Owl went to the door of his house and looked out. The sun was
shining so brightly that after blinking in his doorway for a few minutes
he decided that he would go to bed again and try to sleep until dusk. He
never liked bright days. "They're so dismal!" he used to say. "Give me a
good, dark night and I'm happy, for there's nothing more cheering than
gloom."

In spite of the pangs of hunger that gnawed inside him, Solomon at last
succeeded in falling asleep once more. And he dreamed that he chased
Benjamin Bat three times around Blue Mountain, and then three times back
again, in the opposite direction. But he never could catch him, because
Benjamin Bat simply wouldn't fly straight. His zigzag course was so
confusing that even in his dream Solomon Owl grew dizzy.

Now, Benjamin Bat was in Solomon's house all the time. And the reason why
Solomon Owl hadn't found him was a very simple one. It was merely that
Solomon hadn't looked in the right place.

Benjamin Bat was hidden--as you might say--where his hungry host never once
thought of looking for him. And being asleep all the while, Benjamin
didn't once move or make the slightest noise.

If he had snored, or sneezed, or rustled his wings, no doubt Solomon Owl
would have found him.

When Benjamin awakened, late in the afternoon, Solomon was still sleeping.
And Benjamin crept through the door and went out into the gathering
twilight, without arousing Solomon.

"I'll thank him the next time I meet him," Benjamin Bat decided. And he
staggered away through the air as if he did not quite know, himself, where
he was going. But, of course, that was only his queer way of flying.

When he told his friends where he had spent the day they were astonished.

"How did you ever dare do anything so dangerous as sleeping in Solomon
Owl's house?" they all asked him