Fatty Coon quite agreed with him.

“The one who was here first is the one to act!” Fatty declared. “That’s
_you_!” he told Solomon Owl.

So Solomon Owl felt most uncomfortable.

“I don’t know what I can do,” he said. “I spoke to the stranger—asked him
who he was. And he wouldn’t answer me.”

“Can’t you frighten him away?” Tommy Fox inquired. “Fly right over his
head and give him a blow with your wing as you pass!”

Solomon Owl coughed. He was embarrassed, to say the least.

“He’s afraid!” Fatty Coon cried. And both he and Tommy Fox kept repeating,
over and over again, “He’s afraid! He’s afraid! He’s afraid!”

It was really more than Solomon Owl could stand.

“I’m not!” he retorted angrily. “Watch me and you’ll see!” And without
another word he darted out of the tree and swooped down upon the stranger,
just brushing the top of his head. Solomon Owl knew at once that he had
knocked something off the top of that dreadful head—something that fell to
the ground and made Jimmy Rabbit jump nervously.

Then Solomon returned to his perch in the tree.

“He hasn’t moved,” he said. “But I knocked off his hat.”