"You'all better stop lazing and hustle about fo' something fo' dinner," said old Mrs. Possum, sticking her sharp little face out of the doorway.
"Yas'm, yas'm, Ah was just aiming to do that very thing," replied Unc'
Billy meekly, as he scrambled to his feet.
Just then out tumbled his eight children, making such a racket that Unc' Billy clapped both hands over his ears. "Mah goodness gracious sakes alive!" he exclaimed. One pulled Unc' Billy's tail. Two scrambled up on his back. In two minutes Unc' Billy was down on the ground, rolling and tumbling in the maddest kind of a frolic with his eight children.
Right in the midst of it Unc' Billy sprang to his feet. His eyes were shining, and his funny little ears were pricked up. "Hush, yo'alls!" he commanded. "How do yo'alls think Ah can hear anything with yo'alls making such a racket?" He boxed the ears of one and shook another, and then, when all were still, he stood with his right hand behind his right ear, listening and listening.
"Ah cert'nly thought Ah heard the voice of an ol' friend from way down Souf! Ah cert'nly did!" he muttered, and without another word he started off into the Green Forest, more excited than he had been since his family came up from "Ol' Virginny."
III
UNC' BILLY'S VAIN SEARCH
Unc' Billy Possum was excited. Any one would have known it just to look at him. He hurried off up the Lone Little Path through the Green Forest without even saying good-by to old Mrs. Possum and all the little Possums. They just stared after Unc' Billy and didn't know what to make of it, for such a thing as Unc' Billy forgetting to say good-by had never happened before. Yes, indeed, Unc' Billy certainly was excited.
Old Mrs. Possum sat in the doorway of their home in the great hollow tree and watched Unc' Billy out of sight. Her sharp little eyes seemed to grow sharper as she watched. "Ah done sent that no-account Possum to hunt fo' something fo' dinner, but 'pears to me he's plumb forgot it already," she muttered. "Just look at him with his head up in the air like he thought dinner fo' we uns would drap right down to him out o' the sky! If he's aiming to find a bird's nest with eggs in it this time o' year, he sho'ly am plumb foolish in his haid. No, Sah! That onery Possum has clean fo'gotten what Ah just done tole him, and if we uns am going to have any dinner, Ah cert'nly have got to flax 'round right smart spry mahself!"
Old Mrs. Possum chased the eight little Possums into the house and warned them not to so much as put their heads outside the door while she was gone. Then she started out to hunt for their dinner, still muttering as she went.