But getting out of trouble's always quite the other way--
The more you try to wriggle out, the longer you must stay."




XXV

HAPPY JACK SQUIRREL'S BRIGHT IDEA


Happy Jack Squirrel frisked along through the snow on his way to Unc'
Billy Possum's house in the big hollow tree in the Green Forest to
tell old Mrs. Possum that Unc' Billy was safe in another hollow tree
on the edge of the Green Forest, but that he didn't dare to come home
because he would leave tracks in the snow. He found old Mrs. Possum
very much worried and very much out of sorts. You see Unc' Billy had
been gone a long time for him, and she didn't know what had become of
him.

Now of course old Mrs. Possum was very much relieved when she heard
that Unc' Billy was safe, for she had been afraid that something
dreadful had happened to him. But just as soon as she knew that he was
safe, she forgot all about how worried she had been. All she thought
of was how Unc' Billy had gone to get some fresh eggs to put in his
own stomach and left her to take care of herself and eight baby
Possums.

"Yo' tell Unc' Billy Possum that Ah don' care if he never comes back.
Ah done got other things to bother about more'n a worthless, no'count