Unc' Billy shook his head doubtfully. He was afraid that they might not forgive the tricks that Mr. Mocker had played on them, and then of course he couldn't stay in the Green Forest. So Unc' Billy scratched his head and thought and thought of how he could get Mr. Mocker out of the trouble he had got him into. Finally he went home and told all his troubles to old Mrs. Possum and asked her advice, as he should have done in the first place.
"Serves yo'alls right! It cert'nly does serve yo'alls right!" grunted Mrs. Possum, who was so busy looking after her eight lively babies that she had little time for fooling.
"Ah know it. It cert'nly does," replied Unc' Billy meekly.
"Mischief always trots ahead of grim ol' Mistah Trouble,
They look and act enough alike to be each other's double.
Whoever fools with Mischief's gwine to wake some day or other
And find that Trouble's just the same as Mischief's own twin brother."
Unc' Billy Possum listened to this just as if he had never heard it before, and nodded his head as if he agreed with every word of it. Old Mrs. Possum grumbled and scolded, but all the time she was thinking, and Unc' Billy knew that she was. Finally she finished sweeping the doorsteps and looked thoughtfully at Unc' Billy.
"Why don't yo' give a party fo' Mistah Mocking-bird?" she inquired.
"The very thing!" cried Unc' Billy, and like a flash back came his old-time grin.
XXIV
UNC' BILLY POSSUM GIVES A PARTY
Unc' Billy Possum's party was the greatest event in the Green Forest since the famous surprise party which Peter Rabbit gave when Unc' Billy's family arrived from way down in Ol' Virginny. At first Unc' Billy had been afraid that no one would come. You see, he had been the cause of a lot of the trouble on the Green Meadows and in the Green Forest, and he knew that now all the little meadow and forest people had found him out. So he didn't dare send his invitations around by the Merry Little Breezes of Old Mother West Wind, for fear that no one would pay any heed to them. Of course that meant that Unc' Billy must take them around himself.