"If they ever invited me to one of their affairs I wouldn't care what they did," Solomon Owl remarked one evening to his whistling cousin, Simon Screecher. "If they'd welcome me just once to one of their dances I'd be satisfied."
"It's plain that they don't like you," his cousin remarked.
"Nor you, either!" Solomon Owl boomed. And then all at once he burst forth with a peal of ghostly laughter. "Wha, wha, whoo-ah!"
Now, Master Meadow Mouse had just crept out of one of his doorways and was looking up at the stars when that shivery sound came rolling out of the woods. When he heard it he turned quickly and hurried back where he came from.
"There won't be any fun to-night," he grumbled.
"There's no sense in wasting our time here," said Solomon Owl to his small cousin, Simon Screecher. "It's a fine night. The Mice will all be out sooner or later. Let's go over and sit in that old oak on the edge of the meadow!"