sat in the darkest, thickest part of a big pine-tree and kept blinking his
eyes to keep from going to sleep. He had made up his mind that he wouldn't
go to sleep at all that night, no matter how lonely and frightened he might
be. He just would keep his eyes and his ears wide open.

What was he doing it for? Why, because all the little meadow and forest
people insisted that every night lately Sammy Jay had spent a great part of
his time screaming in the harsh, unpleasant way he does during the day, and
some of them were very cross, because they said that he waked them up when
they wanted to sleep. Now Sammy knew better. He never in his life had
screamed in the night unless--well, unless he did it in his sleep and
didn't know it. So he had made up his mind to keep awake all of this night
and see if in the morning any one would say that he had waked them up.

He had watched the black shadows creep through the Green Forest and grow
blacker and blacker. The blacker they grew, the lonesomer he became. By and
by it was so dark that he couldn't see anything at all, and every little
noise made him shiver. It is easy to be brave in daylight, but in the dark,
when you cannot see a thing, every little sound seems twice as loud as it
really is and gives you such a creepy, creepy feeling. Sammy Jay had it
now. He felt so creepy that it seemed as if he would crawl right out of his
skin. He kept saying over and over to himself: "There's nothing to be
afraid of. There's nothing to be afraid of. I'm just as safe as if I was
fast asleep." But still he shivered and shook.

By and by, looking up through the top of the big pine-tree, he saw the
little stars come out one by one. They seemed to be looking right down at
him and winking at him in the jolliest way. Somehow, he didn't feel quite
so lonely then, and he tried to wink back. Then little, soft, silvery bars
of light began to creep through the branches of the trees and along the