Part 6 (1/2)

BOBBY c.o.o.n MAKES A DISCOVERY

Bobby c.o.o.n had overslept. Usually Bobby is astir shortly after jolly, round, red Mr. Sun has gone to bed behind the Purple Hills. But Bobby is very irregular in his habits. He is very fond of traveling about in the night, is Bobby c.o.o.n, and when he does that, he sleeps the greater part of the day. But once in a while he takes a notion to travel about by daylight, and when he does that, why of course he has to sleep part of the night, anyway. Bobby c.o.o.n is a very lucky chap, very lucky indeed, for he can see in the dark, and yet, unlike Hooty the Owl, he has no trouble in seeing in the broad daylight as well.

This night Bobby c.o.o.n had overslept because he had not gone to bed until the middle of the day. He had been prowling about and getting into mischief all of the night before and had not started for home until jolly, round Mr.

Sun was smiling down from right overhead. By this time Bobby c.o.o.n had sticks in his eyes. He was so sleepy that it seemed to him that he never, never could get home. He was stumbling along through the Green Forest when he came to a hollow log. What do you think he did? Why, he crawled in there, and in two minutes was fast asleep, just as comfortable as if he had been in his own hollow tree.

There Bobby slept all the rest of the day and until long after Mr. Sun had pulled on his rosy nightcap. Perhaps he would have slept there all night, if he hadn't been waked up. It was the cry of ”Thief! thief! thief!” that waked him. It seemed to come from right over his head.

”Sammy Jay ought to be ashamed of himself, waking honest people like this!”

muttered Bobby c.o.o.n, as he yawned and stretched. At first he couldn't think where he was. Then he remembered. He was just getting ready to crawl out of the hollow log, when he heard something which made him stop and try to sit up so suddenly that he b.u.mped his head. What he heard was the voice of Unc'

Billy Possum, and he knew by the sound that Unc' Billy was sitting on the very log in which he himself was hiding.

”This is the greatest joke that ever was!” said Unc' Billy. ”Pretty soon n.o.body on the Green Meadows or in the Green Forest will speak to anybody else excepting me. Yo' cert'nly have got all your ol' tricks with yo'.”

”Yes,” replied a voice which Bobby c.o.o.n had never heard before, but which he knew right away must belong to some one who had come from way down South where Unc' Billy Possum and Ol' Mistah Buzzard had come from. ”Yes,” said the voice, ”Ah done got all mah ol' tricks and some more. But it's easy, Unc' Billy, it's easy to fool your new friends, because Ah reckon they never have been fooled this way before. Don' yo' think it is most time to stop? Ah don't want to show mahself in daylight. Besides, if Ah'm found out, n.o.body ain't gwine to have anything to do with me.”

”Don't yo' worry. n.o.body's gwine to find yo' out. We'll keep it up just a day or two longer. Yo' cert'nly am powerful good at imitating other people's voices. Ah wonder that Ol' Mistah Buzzard hasn't got his eye on yo' before now,” said Unc' Billy Possum.

Bobby c.o.o.n had become wide awake as he listened. He tried hard to get a peep at the stranger with Unc' Billy, but all he could see was a long tail of feathers. Bobby waited until Unc' Billy and his friend had left. Then he crawled out of the hollow log, and he was chuckling to himself.

”I'll just have a little talk with Ol' Mistah Buzzard,” said Bobby to himself.

XX

BOBBY c.o.o.n AND OL' MISTAH BUZZARD HAVE A TALK

Bobby c.o.o.n had spent the largest part of the forenoon sitting at the foot of the tall dead tree on which Ol' Mistah Buzzard likes to roost. All the time Ol' Mistah Buzzard had been sailing 'round and 'round in circles way up in the blue, blue sky, sometimes so high that to Bobby he looked like just a tiny speck. Bobby had watched him until his own neck ached. Mistah Buzzard hardly ever moved his wings. He just sailed and sailed and sailed up and down and 'round and 'round, just as if it was no work at all but pure fun, as indeed it was.

Bobby c.o.o.n had waited so long that it was almost more than he could do to be patient any longer, but if you really want a thing, it is worth waiting for, and so Bobby gave a great sigh and tried to make himself more comfortable. At last Mistah Buzzard came sailing down straight for the tall dead tree. With two or three flaps of his great wings he settled down on his favorite perch and looked down at Bobby c.o.o.n.

”Good mo'ning, Brer c.o.o.n,” said Ol' Mistah Buzzard.

”Good morning, Mistah Buzzard; I hope you are feeling very well this morning,” replied Bobby c.o.o.n as politely as he knew how.

”Fair to middling well,” said Ol' Mistah Buzzard, with a twinkle in his eyes. ”What can Ah do fo' yo'all?”

”If you please, Mistah Buzzard, you can tell me if there is anybody way down South where you come from who can make his voice sound just like the voices of other people. Is there?” Bobby was using his very politest manner.

”Cert'nly! Cert'nly!” chuckled Ol' Mistah Buzzard. ”It's Mistah Mockah the Mocking-bird. Why, that bird just likes to go around making trouble; he just naturally likes to. He just goes around mocking everything and everybody he hears, until sometimes it seems like yo' couldn't be sure of yo' own voice when yo' hear it. Why do yo' ask, Brer c.o.o.n?”

”Because he is right here in the Green Forest now,” replied Bobby c.o.o.n.

”What's that yo' am a-saying, Brer c.o.o.n? What's that?” cried Ol' Mistah Buzzard, growing very excited.

Then Bobby c.o.o.n told Ol' Mistah Buzzard all about the trouble on the Green Meadows and in the Green Forest; how Sammy Jay had moved away to the Old Pasture so that no one could say that he screamed in the night, and yet how his voice was still heard; how Sticky-toes the Tree Toad was almost crazy because his neighbors said he was noisy, when all the time he was sitting with his mouth tight closed; and finally, how all the little meadow and forest people refused to speak to one another because of the many unkind things which had been overheard. And Bobby told what he had overheard the night before when Unc' Billy Possum and a stranger had sat on the very log in which Bobby had been taking, a nap. Ol' Mistah Buzzard chuckled.

”Yo' might have known Unc' Billy was behind all that trouble,” said he.