ided at last that they would go home--and get into
bed.

"Let's take away his sign, anyhow!" Jasper Jay suggested.

So they pulled down Solomon's sign, which said "Disputes Settled Within,"
and they carried it off with them and hid it in some bushes.

That same night Solomon Owl hunted for it for a long time. But he never
found it.

He decided not to hang out another, for he saw that settling disputes was
a dangerous business.

XVII
COUSIN SIMON SCREECHER

Solomon Owl had a small cousin named Simon Screecher. He was unlike
Solomon in some respects, because he always wore ear-tufts, and his eyes
were yellow instead of black. But in some other ways he was no different
from Solomon Owl, for he was a noisy chap and dearly loved mice--to eat.

It happened that the two met in the woods one fine fall evening; and they
agreed to go hunting mice together.

Now, being so much smaller than Solomon, Simon Screecher was all the
spryer. In fact, he was so active that he could catch mice faster than
Solomon Owl could capture them. And they had not hunted long before
Solomon discovered that Simon had succeeded in disposing of six mice to
his three.

That discovery did not please Solomon at all.

"Look here!" he said. "Since we are hunting together it's only fair to
divide what we catch, half and half."

Simon Screecher hesitated. But after reflecting that his cousin was very
big and very strong, he agreed to Solomon's suggestion.

So they resumed their hunting. And every time one of them caught two mice,
he gave one mouse to his cousin.

Still Solomon Owl was not satisfied.

"Wait a moment!" Solomon called to Simon Screecher. "It has just occurred
to me that I am more than twice as big as you are; so I ought to have
twice as many mice as you."

This time Simon Screecher hesitated longer. He did not like the second
suggestion even as well as the first. And in the end he said as much, too.

But Solomon Owl insisted that it was only fair.

"You surely ought to be glad to please your own cousin," he told Simon.

"It's not that," said Simon Screecher. "It seems to me that since I'm not
half your size, I ought to have twice as many mice to eat, so I'll grow
bigger."

Well, Solomon Owl hadn't thought of that. He was puzzled to know what to
say. And he wanted time in which to ponder.

"I'll think over what you say," he told Simon Screecher. "And now, since
it's almost dawn, we'd better not hunt any longer to