Old Mrs. Possum looked after him suspiciously. "Don't yo' go fo' to do
any foolishness!" she called.

Unc' Billy didn't answer. He was on his way to Farmer Brown's
hen-house.




XVI

WHY UNC' BILLY POSSUM DIDN'T GO HOME


Unc' Billy Possum had a very good reason for not going home, a very good
reason, indeed. Even old Mrs. Possum would have thought it was a good
reason, could she have known it. But she didn't know it, and so she
sat in the home in the big hollow tree in the Green Forest and worried
herself almost sick, because Unc' Billy didn't come home, and she
didn't know what might have happened to him.

Sometimes Unc' Billy wished that he was back in the old hollow tree,
and sometimes he was glad that he was right where he was. Sometimes
he felt little shivers of fear run all over him as he thought of what
might become of him if he should be found. Sometimes a little tickly
feeling of pleasure ran all over him, as he bit a hole in the end of a
freshly laid egg and sucked the egg out of the shell.

Now Unc' Billy was very, very crafty. He had found Jimmy Skunk's
tracks boldly leading up to the hen-house, so Unc' Billy had stepped