Part 5 (1/2)

Unc' Billy agreed, and side by side they sat as still as if they were made of wood or stone The black shadows ca Brook, and soon it was very dark, so dark that Peter and Unc'

Billy, whose eyes are ht, had hard work to rew later and later, and still there was not a sound of the voice of either Sary The rew He was just about ready to give it up, when thethe alder trees just as they had crept through the Green Forest the night that Saht

The moonbeams crept farther and farther into the thicket of alder trees and bushes where Peter Rabbit and Unc' Billy Possu Then it was that they heard the voice of Sticky-toes the Tree Toad At any rate, Peter was sure that it was the voice of Sticky-toes until a fierce, angry whisper came down to him from the branch of an alder just over his head Peter looked up There sat Sticky-toes hi fro Brook

”Do you hear that? Do you hear that? There's my voice over there, and here I am here! What do you make of it?” whispered Sticky-toes

Peter didn't knohat to aze at Sticky-toes as if he thought Sticky-toes was a ghost Just then the voice of Sammy Jay, or what sounded for all the world like Sammy's voice, screamed ”Thief! thief! thief!” from the very spot where they had just heard the voice of Sticky-toes

Peter turned to ask Unc' Billy Possuht, but Unc' Billy wasn't there

XVI

UNC' BILLY POSSUM DOES A LITTLE SURPRISING HIMSELF

When Unc' Billy Possum first heard what sounded like the voice of Sticky-toes the Tree Toad, he had thought, just as Peter Rabbit did, that Sticky-toes was over in an alder tree on the other side of the Laughing Brook But when he heard a whisper right over their heads and looked up to see Sticky-toes himself, Unc' Billy almost chuckled out loud

”Yo' can't fool Uncle Billy, So don't go fo' to try!

Ah knows yo', yes, Ah knows yo'-- Ah knows yo', Mistah Sly”

He said that to himself and quite under his breath, for all the time that Peter Rabbit and Sticky-toes the Tree Toad hispering together, Unc'

Billy Possu away under the alder bushes Unc' Billy is very soft-footed, oh, very soft-footed indeed, when he wants to be You see one s in Farmer Brown's hen-house

So Unc' Billy stole aithouta sound, and when Peter Rabbit turned to speak to him, there was no Unc' Billy there

Peter rubbed his eyes and stared all around, this way and that way, but no sign of Unc' Billy could he see This so surprised Peter Rabbit that he felt queer all over First there was the voice of Sticky-toes over on the other side of the Laughing Brook, when all the time Sticky-toes wasn't there at all Now here Unc' Billy Possum had disappeared, just as if the earth had sed him up

”This isn't any place for me!” said Peter Rabbit, and off he started for the Green Meadows as fast as he could go, lipperty-lipperty-lip!

All this ti without the tiniest sound When he ca Brook, he went up a way until he found a big tree with a branch stretching clear across Of course Unc' Billy could have swuht, so he cli the branch, let himself down by the tail, and then dropped He was across the Laughing Brook without even wetting his feet

Unc' Billy didn't waste any ti in the darkest shadows, until he was right under the alder tree fro voice of Sticky-toes the Tree Toad seeer he listened, the broader grew the smile on Unc' Billy's shrewd face

”Thief! thief! thief!”

It certainly sounded for all the world like Saht over Unc' Billy's head Unc' Billy peered up through the alders The leaves were so thick that he could not see very well, but what he did see was enough It was a long tail, a tail of feathers hanging down It wasn't Sammy Jay's tail, either