voice he began to sing:

"Ol' Bill Possum, he's gone before!
Ol' Bill Possum, he is no more!
Bill was a scamp, Sir;
Bill was a thief!
Bill stole an egg, Sir;
Bill came to grief.
Ol' Bill Possum, it served him right;
And he is no more, for he died last night."

"Very good, Sah, very good. Ah cert'nly am obliged to yo'all for yo'
serenade," said a voice that seemed to come out of the tree at Reddy's
back.

Reddy Fox sprang up as if some one had stuck a pin into him. Every
hair stood on end, as he looked up at Unc' Billy's doorway. Then his
teeth began to chatter with fright. Looking out of Unc' Billy's
doorway and grinning down at him was something that looked for all the
world like Unc' Billy himself.

"It must be his ghost!" said Reddy, and tucking his tail between his
legs, he started up the Crooked Little Path as fast as his legs could
take him.

Reddy never once looked back. If he had, he might have seen Unc' Billy
Possum climb down from the hollow tree and shake hands with Jimmy
Skunk, who had just come along.

"How did Ah do it? Why, Ah just pretended Ah was daid, when Farmer