in starting for the Green Forest. But it was slow, hard work. You see,
the snow was newly fallen and very soft. Of course Unc' Billy sank
into it almost up to his middle at every step. He huffed and he puffed
and he grunted and groaned. You see Unc' Billy had slept so much
through the winter that he was not at all used to hard work of any
kind, and he wasn't half way to the Green Forest before he was so
tired it seemed to him that he could hardly move, and so out of breath
that he could only gasp. It was then that he was sure that he hated
the snow more than he liked it, even if it had set him free from the
hen-house of Farmer Brown.

Now it never does to let one's wits go to sleep. Some folks call it
forgetting, but forgetting is nothing but sleepy wits. And sleepy wits
get more people into trouble than anything else in the world. Unc'
Billy Possum's wits were asleep when he left Farmer Brown's hen-house.
If they hadn't been, he would have remembered this little saying:

The wits that live within my head
Must never, never go to sleep,
For if they should I might forget
And Trouble on me swiftly leap.

But Unc' Billy's wits certainly were asleep. He was so tickled over
the idea that he could get out of the hen-house, that he couldn't
think of anything else, and so he forgot. Yes, Sir, Unc' Billy forgot!
What did he forget? Why, he forgot that that nice, soft snow, which so
kindly buried the dreadful traps so that they could do no harm,
couldn't be waded through without leaving tracks. Unc' Billy forgot
all about that, until he was half way to the Green Forest, and then,
as he sat down to rest and get his breath, he remembered.