He said he had a good reason for avoiding him.
And ever afterward he passed for a very brave person among his friends. They often pointed him out to strangers, saying, “There’s Benjamin Bat! He doesn’t know what fear is. Why, once he even spent a whole day asleep in Solomon Owl’s house! And if you don’t think that was a bold thing to do, then I guess you don’t know Solomon Owl.”
XV
Disputes Settled
Solomon Owl looked so wise that many of his neighbors fell into the habit of going to him for advice. If two of the forest folk chanced to have a dispute which they could not settle between them they frequently visited Solomon and asked him to decide which was in the right. And in the course of time Solomon became known far and wide for his ability to patch up a quarrel.
At last Jimmy Rabbit stopped Solomon Owl one night and suggested that he hang a sign outside his house, so that there shouldn’t be anybody in the whole valley that wouldn’t know what to do in case he found himself in an argument.
Solomon decided on the spot that Jimmy Rabbit’s idea was a good one. So he hurried home and before morning he had his sign made, and put out where everyone could see it. It looked like this:
DISPUTES SETTLED WITHIN
There was only one objection to the sign. As soon as Jimmy Rabbit saw it he told Solomon that it should have said:
DISPUTES SETTLED WITHOUT
“Without what?” Solomon Owl inquired.