XIII

UNC' BILLY POSSUM GROWS HUNGRY


Unc' Billy Possum spent the very coldest days of winter curled up in
his warm, snug home in the big hollow tree in the Green Forest. Unc'
Billy didn't like the cold weather. Sometimes he would stick his head
out of his doorway and then, as he heard rough Brother North Wind
whooping through the Green Forest, he would turn right around and go
back to his bed for another nap. And all the time he would be saying:

"Way down Souf de sun am shinin'--
Yas, Sah, dat am so!
Fo' dat lan' mah heart am pinin'--
Yas, Sah, dat am so!

"De mocking-bird he sings all day,
De alligators am at play,
De flowers dey am bloomin' fair,
And mah heart aches to be down there--
Yas, Sah, dat am so!"

Now Unc' Billy had prepared for the winter by getting just as fat as
he knew how. He was so fat that he could hardly waddle when Jack Frost
first came to the Green Forest. You see he knew that if he was very,