“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.”
“You took off the top of his head!” cried Fatty Coon in great excitement. “Look! The inside of his head is afire.”
And peering down from the tree-top, Solomon Owl saw that Fatty Coon had told the truth.
IX
Hallowe’en
Solomon Owl was afraid of fire. And when he looked down from his perch in the tree and saw, through the hole in the stranger’s crown, that all was aglow inside his big, round head, Solomon couldn’t help voicing his horror. He “whoo-whooed” so loudly that Tommy Fox, at the foot of the tree, asked him what on earth was the matter.
“His head’s all afire!” Solomon Owl told him. “That’s what makes his eyes glare so. And that’s why the fire shines through his mouth and his nose, too. It’s no wonder he didn’t answer my question—for, of course, his tongue must certainly be burned to a cinder.”