The Adventures of Unc' Billy Possum Part 8

HAPPY JACK SQUIRREL MAKES AN UNEXPECTED CALL

Happy Jack Squirrel likes the snow. He always has liked the snow. It makes him feel frisky. He likes to run and jump in it and dig little holes in it after nuts, which he hid under the leaves before the snow fell. When his feet get cold, all he has to do is to scamper up a tree and warm them in his own fur coat. So the big snowstorm which made so much trouble for Unc' Billy Possum just suited Happy Jack Squirrel, and he had a whole lot of fun making his funny little tracks all through that part of the Green Forest in which he lives.

Happy Jack didn't know anything about Unc' Billy Possum's troubles. He supposed that Unc' Billy was safe at home in his own big hollow tree, fast asleep, as he had been most of the winter. Happy Jack couldn't understand how anybody could want to sleep such fine weather, but that was their own business, and Happy Jack had learned a long time ago not to worry about other people's business.

After frisking about he would stop to rest. Then he would sit up very straight and fold his hands across his breast, where they would get nice and warm in the fur of his coat. His beautiful, great gray tail would be arched up over his back. His bright eyes would snap and twinkle, and then he would shout just for joy, and every time he shouted he jerked his big tail. Farmer Brown's boy called it barking, but it was Happy Jack's way of shouting.

"I love to romp! I love to play!

I'm happy, happy, all the day!

I love the snow, so soft and white!

I love the sun that s.h.i.+nes so bright!

I love the whole world, for, you see, The world is very good to me!"

By and by Happy Jack came to the hollow tree that Farmer Brown's boy had cut down because he thought that Unc' Billy Possum was inside of it.

"h.e.l.lo!" exclaimed Happy Jack. "That's one of the old storehouses of my cousin, Chatterer the Red Squirrel! I've got an old storehouse near here, and I guess I'll see if I have left any nuts in it."

He scampered over to another hollow tree standing near. He scampered up the tree as only Happy Jack can and whisked in at the open doorway of the hollow. Now Happy Jack had been in that hollow tree so often that he didn't once think of looking to see where he was going, and he landed plump on something that was soft and warm! Happy Jack was so surprised that he didn't know what to do for a second. And then all in a flash that something soft and warm was full of sharp claws and sharper teeth, and an angry growling tilled the hollow tree.

Happy Jack was so frightened that he scrambled out as fast as he could. When he was safely outside, he grew very angry to think that any one should be in his storehouse, even if it was an old one. He could hear a very angry voice inside, and in a minute who should appear at the doorway but Unc' Billy Possum.

Unc' Billy had been waked out of a sound sleep, and that was enough to make any one cross. Besides, he had been badly frightened, and that made him crosser still.

"What do yo' mean by trying to frighten honest people?" snapped Unc'

Billy, when he caught sight of Happy Jack.

"What do you mean by stealing into other folk's houses?" demanded Happy Jack, just as angrily.

XXIV

HAPPY JACK SQUIRREL HELPS UNC' BILLY POSSUM

It is very startling, very startling indeed, to rush into your own storehouse, which you had supposed was empty, and run right into some one sleeping there as if he owned it. It is enough to make any one lose his temper. Happy Jack Squirrel lost his.

And it is very startling, very startling, indeed, to be wakened out of pleasant dreams of warm summer days by having some one suddenly jump on you. It is enough to make any one lose his temper. Unc' Billy Possum lost his.

So Happy Jack sat outside on a branch of the hollow tree where his old storehouse was and scolded, and called Unc' Billy Possum names, and jerked his tail angrily with every word he said. And Unc' Billy Possum sat in the doorway of the hollow tree and showed his teeth to Happy Jack and said unpleasant things. It really was very dreadful the way those two did talk.

But Unc' Billy Possum is really very good-natured, and when he had gotten over the fright Happy Jack had given him and began to understand that he was in one of Happy Jack's storehouses, all his temper vanished, and presently he began to grin and then to laugh. Now it always takes two to make a quarrel, and one of the hardest things in the world is to keep cross when the one you are cross with won't keep cross, too. Happy Jack tried hard to stay angry, but every time he looked at Unc' Billy Possum's twinkling eyes and broad grin, Happy Jack lost a little of his own temper. Pretty soon he was laughing just as hard as Unc' Billy Possum.

"Ho, ho, ho! Ha, ha, ha!" they laughed together. Finally they had to stop for breath.

"What are you doing in my storehouse, Unc' Billy?" asked Happy Jack, when he could stop laughing.

Then Unc' Billy told him all about how he had climbed there from another tree, so as to leave no tracks in the snow for Farmer Brown's boy to follow.

"But now Ah want to go to mah own home in the big hollow tree way down in the Green Forest, but Ah can't, on account of mah tracks in the snow," concluded Unc' Billy mournfully.

Happy Jack put his head on one side and thought very hard. "Why don't you stay right here until the snow goes, Unc' Billy?" he asked.

"Because Ah 'spects that mah ol' woman am worried most to death," said Unc' Billy, in a mournful voice. "Besides," he added, "Ah just done found out that this right nice lil' house belongs to one of mah neighbors." There was a twinkle in Unc' Billy's eyes.

Happy Jack laughed. "You're welcome to stay as long as you like, Unc'

Billy," he said. "You better stay right where you are, and I'll go tell old Mrs. Possum where you are."

"Thank yo'! Thank yo'! That is very kind of yo', Brer Squirrel. That will be a great help, fo' it will lift a great load off mah mind,"

said Unc' Billy.

"Don't mention it, Unc' Billy!" replied Happy Jack and started off with the message to old Mrs. Possum, and as he scampered through the snow he said:

"To get yourself in trouble is a very easy thing.

I notice that to others it will always worries bring.

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 Possum what don' take care of his fam'ly," she said crossly, and hurried into the house to see that the eight little Possums were properly tucked in bed, for it was a cold day, and the eight little Possums had to stay in bed to keep warm.

Happy Jack chuckled as he started back to tell Unc' Billy Possum. He knew perfectly well that old Mrs. Possum didn't mean what she said.

He knew that Unc' Billy would know that she didn't mean it. But he knew, and he knew that Unc' Billy knew, that when he did get home, he would get a great scolding. Then all of a sudden Happy Jack thought of a way for Unc' Billy to get home without waiting until the snow melted away. That might be a very long time, for there was a great deal of snow on the ground.

What do you suppose gave Happy Jack his idea? Why, a tiny little snowflake that hit Happy Jack right on the end of his nose! Yes, Sir, it was that tiny little snowflake that gave Happy Jack Squirrel his bright idea.

He hurried back to the hollow tree where Unc' Billy was hiding and scrambled up to the doorway.

"h.e.l.lo, Unc' Billy! You can go home to-night!" he shouted.

Unc' Billy Possum stuck his head out of the doorway. "What's that yo'

say, Brer Squirrel?" he said. "Ah don' see as the snow has gone away, and your tracks are powerful plain to see, and Ah makes bigger tracks than yo', Brer Squirrel."

"Just look up in the sky, Unc' Billy!" said Happy Jack.