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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Tale of Solomon Owl by Arthur Scott
+Bailey
+
+
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no
+restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under
+the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or
+online at http://www.gutenberg.org/license
+
+
+
+Title: The Tale of Solomon Owl
+
+Author: Arthur Scott Bailey
+
+Release Date: 2005-09 [Ebook #16663]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO 8859-1
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE TALE OF SOLOMON OWL***
+
+
+
+
+
+The Tale of Solomon Owl
+By Arthur Scott Bailey
+
+Author of "The Tale of Sandy Chipmunk," "The Tale of Tommy Fox," etc.
+_Illustrated by Harry L. Smith_
+
+New York
+Grosset & Dunlap
+1917
+
+
+
+
+
+                             [_Frontispiece_]
+
+                     Solomon Owl Sat Up And Listened.
+
+
+
+
+
+                                 CONTENTS
+
+
+Illustrations
+I - Scaring Johnny Green
+II - A Newcomer
+III - Solomon Likes Frogs
+IV - An Odd Bargain
+V - The Cold Weather Coat
+VI - Solomon Needs a Change
+VII - The Blazing Eyes
+VIII - Watching The Chickens
+IX - Hallowe'en
+X - A Troublesome Wishbone
+XI - Cured At Last
+XII - Benjamin Bat
+XIII - The Lucky Guest
+XIV - Hanging By The Heels
+XV - Disputes Settled
+XVI - Nine Fights
+XVII - Cousin Simon Screecher
+XVIII - A Cousinly Quarrel
+XIX - The Sleet Storm
+XX - A Pair Of Red-Heads
+XXI - At Home In The Haystack
+XXII - It Was Solomon's Fault
+
+
+
+
+
+ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+
+      Solomon Owl Sat Up And Listened _Frontispiece_
+      Solomon Found Mr. Frog's Shop Was Closed
+      Benjamin Bat Asked Solomon's Advice
+      "It's All Right!" Said Solomon
+
+
+
+
+
+
+THE TALE OF SOLOMON OWL
+
+
+
+
+
+I
+SCARING JOHNNY GREEN
+
+
+When Johnnie Green was younger, it always scared him to hear Solomon Owl's
+deep-toned voice calling in the woods after dark.
+
+"_Whoo-whoo-whoo, whoo-whoo, to-whoo-ah_!" That weird cry was enough to
+send Johnnie Green hurrying into the farmhouse, though sometimes he paused
+in the doorway to listen--especially if Solomon Owl happened to be
+laughing. His "_haw-haw-hoo-hoo_," booming across the meadow on a crisp
+fall evening, when the big yellow moon hung over the fields of corn-shocks
+and pumpkins, sounded almost as if Solomon were laughing at the little boy
+he had frightened. There was certainly a mocking, jeering note in his
+laughter.
+
+Of course, as he grew older, Johnnie Green no longer shivered on hearing
+Solomon's rolling call. When Solomon laughed, Johnnie Green would laugh,
+too. But Solomon Owl never knew that, for often he was half a mile from
+the farm buildings.
+
+A "hoot owl," Johnnie Green termed him. And anyone who heard Solomon
+hooting of an evening, or just before sunrise, would have agreed that it
+was a good name for him. But he was really a _barred_ owl, for he had bars
+of white across his feathers.
+
+If you had happened to catch Solomon Owl resting among the thick hemlocks
+near the foot of Blue Mountain, where he lived, you would have thought
+that he looked strangely like a human being. He had no "horns," or
+ear-tufts, such as some of the other owls wore; and his great pale face,
+with its black eyes, made him seem very wise and solemn.
+
+In spite of the mild, questioning look upon his face whenever anyone
+surprised him in the daytime, Solomon Owl was the noisiest of all the
+different families of owls in Pleasant Valley. There were the barn owls,
+the long-eared owls, the short-eared owls, the saw-whet owls, the screech
+owls--but there! there's no use of naming them all. There wasn't one of
+them that could equal Solomon Owl's laughing and hooting and shrieking and
+wailing--at night.
+
+During the day, however, Solomon Owl he was quiet about it. One reason for
+his silence then was that he generally slept when the sun was shining. And
+when most people were sleeping, Solomon Owl was as wide awake as he could
+be.
+
+He was a night-prowler--if ever there was one. And he could see a mouse on
+the darkest night, even if it stirred ever so slightly.
+
+That was unfortunate for the mice. But luckily for them, Solomon Owl
+couldn't be in more than one place at a time. Otherwise, there wouldn't
+have been a mouse left in Pleasant Valley--if he could have had _his_ way.
+
+And though he didn't help the mice, he helped Farmer Green by catching
+them. If he did take a fat pullet once in a while, it is certain that he
+more than paid for it.
+
+So, on the whole, Farmer Green did not wood-lot. And for a long time
+Solomon raised no objection to Farmer Green's living near Swift River.
+
+But later Solomon Owl claimed that it would be a good thing for the forest
+folk if they could get rid of the whole Green family--and the hired man,
+too.
+
+
+
+
+
+II
+A NEWCOMER
+
+
+Upon his arrival, as a stranger, in Pleasant Valley, Solomon Owl looked
+about carefully for a place to live. What he wanted especially was a good,
+_dark_ hole, for he thought that sunshine was very dismal.
+
+Though he was willing to bestir himself enough to suit anybody, when it
+came to _hunting_, Solomon Owl did not like to work. He was no busy
+nest-builder, like Rusty Wren. In his search for a house he looked several
+times at the home of old Mr. Crow. If it had suited him better, Solomon
+would not have hesitated to take that it was altogether _too light_ to
+please him.
+
+That was lucky for old Mr. Crow. And the black rascal knew it, too. He had
+noticed that Solomon Owl was hanging about the neighborhood. And several
+times he caught Solomon examining his nest.
+
+But Mr. Crow did not have to worry long. For as it happened, Solomon Owl
+at last found exactly what he wanted. In an old, hollow hemlock, he came
+across a cozy, dark cavity. As soon as he saw it he knew that it was the
+very thing! So he moved in at once. And except for the time that he spent
+in the meadow--which was considerably later--he lived there for a good many
+years.
+
+Once Fatty Coon thought that he would drive Solomon out of his snug house
+and live in it himself. But he soon changed Solomon Owl--so Fatty
+discovered--had sharp, strong claws and a sharp, strong beak as well, which
+curled over his face in a cruel hook.
+
+It was really a good thing for Solomon Owl--the fight he had with Fatty
+Coon. For afterward his neighbors seldom troubled him--except when Jasper
+Jay brought a crowd of his noisy friends to tease Solomon, or Reddy
+Woodpecker annoyed him by rapping on his door when he was asleep.
+
+But those rowdies always took good care to skip out of Solomon's reach.
+And when Jasper Jay met Solomon alone in the woods at dawn or dusk he was
+most polite to the solemn old chap. _Then_ it was "How-dy-do, Mr. Owl!"
+and "I hope you're well to-day!" And when Solomon Jasper, that bold fellow
+always felt quite uneasy; and he was glad when Solomon Owl looked away.
+
+If Solomon Owl chanced to _hoot_ on those occasions, Jasper Jay would jump
+almost out of his bright blue coat. Then Solomon's deep laughter would
+echo mockingly through the woods.
+
+You see, though not nearly so wise as he appeared, Solomon Owl knew well
+enough how to frighten some people.
+
+
+
+
+
+III
+SOLOMON LIKES FROGS
+
+
+It was a warm summer's evening--so warm that Mr. Frog, the tailor, had
+taken his sewing outside his tailor's shop and seated himself cross-legged
+upon the bank of the brook, where he sang and sewed without ceasing--except
+to take a swim now and then in the cool water, "to stretch his legs," as
+he claimed.
+
+He was making a new suit of blue clothes for Jasper Jay. And since Jasper
+was a great dandy, and very particular Mr. Frog was taking special pains
+with his sewing.
+
+Usually he did his work quickly. But now after every five stitches that he
+put into his work he stopped to take out ten. And naturally he was not
+getting on very fast. He had been working busily since early morning; and
+Jasper Jay's suit was further than ever from being finished.
+
+Since he was a most cheerful person, Mr. Frog did not mind that. Indeed,
+he was more than pleased, because the oftener he took a swim the fewer
+stitches he lost. So he sang the merriest songs he knew.
+
+The light was fast fading when a hollow laugh startled Mr. Frog. It seemed
+to come from the willow tree right over his head. And he knew without
+looking up that it was Solomon Owl's deep voice.
+
+Mr. Frog tried to leap into the brook. But when he uncrossed his legs, in
+his haste he tangled them up in his sewing. And all he could do was to
+turn a somersault backward among some bulrushes, hoping that Solomon Owl
+had not seen him.
+
+It is no secret that Mr. Frog was terribly afraid of Solomon Owl. Some of
+Mr. Frog's friends had mysteriously disappeared. And they had last been
+seen in Solomon's company.
+
+As it happened, Mr. Frog had hoped in vain. For Solomon Owl only laughed
+more loudly than before. And then he said:
+
+"What are you afraid of, Mr. Frog?"
+
+The tailor knew at once that he was caught. So he hopped nimbly to his
+feet and answered that there was nothing to be afraid of, so far as he
+could see.
+
+It was a true statement, too; because Mr. Frog had not yet discovered
+Solomon Owl's exact whereabouts.
+
+But he learned them soon; for Solomon immediately dropped down from the
+big willow and alighted on the bank near Mr. Frog--altogether _too near_
+him, in fact, for the tailor's comfort.
+
+Solomon looked at Mr. Frog very solemnly. And he thought that he shivered.
+
+"What's the matter? Are you ill?" Solomon Owl inquired. "You seem to be
+shaking."
+
+"Just a touch of chills and fever, probably!" replied Mr. Frog with an
+uneasy smile. "You know it's very damp here."
+
+"You don't look in the best of health--that's a fact!" Solomon Owl
+remarked. "You appear to me to be somewhat green in the face." And he
+laughed once more--that same hollow, mirthless laugh.
+
+Mr. Frog couldn't help jumping, because the sound alarmed him.
+
+"Don't be disturbed!" said Solomon Owl. "I like all the Frog family."
+
+At that remark, Mr. Frog started violently That was exactly the trouble!
+Solomon Owl was _altogether too fond_ of frogs, whether they were old or
+young, big or little.
+
+It was no wonder that Mr. Frog swallowed rapidly sixteen times before he
+could say another word.
+
+
+
+
+
+IV
+AN ODD BARGAIN
+
+
+While Mr. Frog was swallowing nothing rapidly, he was thinking rapidly,
+too. There was something about Solomon Owl's big, staring eyes that made
+Mr. Frog feel uncomfortable. And if he had thought he had any chance of
+escaping he would have dived into the brook and swum under the bank.
+
+But Solomon Owl was too near him for that. And Mr. Frog was afraid his
+caller would pounce upon him any moment. So he quickly thought of a plan
+to save himself. "No doubt----" he began. But Solomon Owl interrupted him.
+
+"There!" cried Solomon. "You _can_ speak, after all. I supposed you'd
+swallowed your tongue. And I was just waiting to see what you'd do next. I
+thought maybe you would swallow your _head_."
+
+Mr. Frog managed to laugh at the joke, though, to tell the truth, he felt
+more nervous than ever. He saw what was in Solomon Owl's mind, for Solomon
+was thinking of swallowing Mr. Frog's head himself.
+
+"No doubt--" Mr. Frog resumed--"no doubt you've come to ask me to make you a
+new suit of clothes."
+
+Now, Solomon Owl had had no such idea at all. But when it was mentioned to
+him, he rather liked it.
+
+"Will you?" he inquired, with a highly interested air.
+
+"Why, certainly!" the tailor replied. And for the first time since he had
+turned his backward somersault into the bulrushes, he smiled widely. "I'll
+tell you what I'll do!" he said. "First, I'll make you a coat free. And
+second, if you like it I will then make you a waistcoat and trousers, at
+double rates."
+
+Solomon Owl liked the thought of getting a coat for nothing. But for all
+that, he looked at the tailor somewhat doubtfully.
+
+"Will it take you long?" he asked.
+
+"No, indeed!" Mr. Frog told him. "I'll make your coat while you wait."
+
+"Oh, I wasn't going away," Solomon assured him with an odd look which made
+Mr. Frog shiver again. "Be quick, please! Because I have some important
+business to attend to."
+
+Mr. Frog couldn't help wondering if it wasn't he himself that Solomon Owl
+was going to attend to. In spite of his fears, to work to cut up some
+cloth that hung just outside his door.
+
+"Stop!" Solomon Owl cried in a voice that seemed to shake the very ground.
+"You haven't measured me yet!"
+
+"It's not necessary," Mr. Frog explained glibly. "I've become so skilful
+that one look at an elegant figure like yours is all that I need."
+
+Naturally, Mr. Frog's remark pleased Solomon Owl. And he uttered ten rapid
+hoots, which served to make Mr. Frog's fingers fly all the faster. Soon he
+was sewing Solomon's coat with long stitches; and though his needle
+slipped now and then, he did not pause to take out a single stitch. For
+some reason, Mr. Frog was in a great hurry.
+
+Solomon Owl did not appear to notice that the tailor was not taking much
+pains with his sewing. Perhaps Mr. Frog worked so fast that Solomon could
+not see what he was doing.
+
+Anyhow, he was delighted when Mr. Frog suddenly cried:
+
+"It's finished!" And then he tossed the coat to Solomon. "Try it on!" he
+said. "I want to see how well it fits you."
+
+Solomon Owl held up the garment and looked at it very carefully. And as he
+examined it a puzzled look came over his great pale face.
+
+There was something about his new coat that he did not understand.
+
+
+
+
+
+V
+THE COLD WEATHER COAT
+
+
+Yes! As he held up his new coat and looked at it, Solomon Owl was puzzled.
+He turned his head toward Mr. Frog and stared at him for a moment. And
+then he turned his head away from the tailor and gazed upon the coat
+again.
+
+Mr. Frog was most uncomfortable--especially when Solomon looked at _him_.
+
+"Everything's all right, isn't it?" he inquired.
+
+Solomon Owl slowly shook his head.
+
+"This is a queer coat!" he said. "What's this bag at the top of it?"
+
+"Oh!" exclaimed Mr. Frog. "That's the hood! Knowing that you spend your
+winters here in Pleasant Valley, I made a hood to go over your head....
+You'll find it very comfortable in cold weather--and it's the latest style,
+too. All the winter coats this year will have hoods, with holes to see
+through, you know."
+
+Solomon Owl looked relieved at Mr. Frog's explanation. But there was still
+something more that appeared to trouble him.
+
+"How shall I get into the coat?" he inquired. "It doesn't open in front,
+as it should."
+
+"Another cold-weather style!" Mr. Frog assured him. "It's wind-proof! And
+instead of buttoning the coat, you pull it on over your head."
+
+Solomon Owl said he didn't like that style very well.
+
+"Then I can easily change it," the tailor told him. "But just try it on!"
+he urged. "It may please you, after all."
+
+So Solomon Owl pulled the coat over his head. And it fell down about him,
+almost reaching his feet. But the coat did not seem to suit him at all,
+for he began to splutter and choke.
+
+"What's the matter now?" Mr. Frog asked him.
+
+"I can't see--that's what's the matter!" Solomon Owl cried in a voice that
+sounded hollower than ever, because it was muffled by the hood, which
+covered his head.
+
+"I declare--I haven't cut the holes for your eyes!" the tailor exclaimed.
+"Just wait a moment and I'll make everything satisfactory." He clinked his
+shears together sharply as he spoke.
+
+But Solomon Owl told him that he wouldn't _think_ of letting anybody use
+shears so near his eyes.
+
+                            [_Illustration 1_]
+
+                 Solomon Found Mr. Frog's Shop Was Closed
+
+
+"I'll take off the coat," he said. "And I know now that you're a very poor
+tailor, or you wouldn't have made such a mistake." He began to tug at the
+coat. But he soon found that taking it off was not so easy as putting it
+on. Solomon's sharp claws caught in the cloth; and his hooked beak, too,
+fastened itself in the hood the moment he tried to pull the coat over his
+head. "Here!" he cried to Mr. Frog. "Just lend me a hand! I can't see to
+help myself."
+
+But Mr. Frog did not even answer him.
+
+"Don't you hear me?" Solomon Owl shouted, as he struggled with his new
+coat, only to become tangled in it more than ever.
+
+Still, the tailor said never a word, though something very like a giggle,
+followed by a splash, caught Solomon's ear.
+
+"He's left me!" Solomon Owl groaned.
+
+"Mr. Frog has left me to get out of this coat alone. And goodness knows
+how I'm ever a-going to do it." He threshed about so vigorously that he
+tripped himself and fell upon the bank of the brook, rolling over and over
+toward the water.
+
+He had a very narrow escape. If he hadn't happened to bring up against an
+old stump he would certainly have tumbled into the stream.
+
+Though Solomon couldn't see, he knew that he was in danger. So he lay on
+his back on the ground and carefully tore his new coat into strings and
+ribbons.
+
+At last he was free. And he rose to his feet feeling very sheepish, for he
+knew that Mr. Frog had played a sly trick on him.
+
+"Nevermind!" said Solomon Owl, as he flew way. "I'll come back to-morrow
+and ask Mr. Frog to make me a waistcoat and trousers. And then----" He did
+not finish what he was saying. But there is no doubt that whatever it was,
+it could not have been very pleasant for Mr. Frog.
+
+Just as he had planned, Solomon Owl returned to the brook the next day.
+And he was both surprised and disappointed at what he found.
+
+The door of Mr. Frog's tailor's shop was shut and locked. And on it there
+was a sign, which said:
+
+TO LET
+
+"He's moved away!" cried Solomon Owl. And he went off feeling that he had
+been cheated out of a good dinner--to say nothing of a new waistcoat--and
+new trousers, too.
+
+He had not been gone long when the door opened. And Mr. Frog leaped nimbly
+outside. He took the sign off the door; and sitting down cross-legged upon
+the bank, he began to sew upon Jasper Jay's new blue suit, while his face
+wore a wider smile than ever.
+
+He had suddenly decided not to let his shop, after all.
+
+
+
+
+
+VI
+SOLOMON NEEDS A CHANGE
+
+
+For some time Solomon Owl had known that a queer feeling was coming over
+him. And he could not think what it meant. He noticed, too, that his
+appetite was leaving him. Nothing seemed to taste good any more.
+
+So at last, one fine fall evening he went to see Aunt Polly Woodchuck, who
+was an herb doctor; for he had begun to worry about his health.
+
+"It's lucky you came to-day," said Aunt Polly. "Because to-night I'm going
+to begin my winter's nap. And you couldn't have seen me again till
+spring--unless you happened to come here on ground-hog day, next
+February.... What appears to be your trouble?" she inquired.
+
+"It's my appetite, partly," Solomon Owl said. "Nothing tastes as it did
+when I was a youngster. And I keep longing for something, though what it
+is I can't just tell."
+
+Aunt Polly Woodchuck nodded her head wisely.
+
+"What have you been eating lately?" she asked.
+
+Solomon Owl replied that he hadn't eaten anything but mice since the
+leaves began to turn.
+
+"H-m--the leaves are nearly all off the trees now," the old lady remarked.
+"How many mice have you eaten in that time?"
+
+Solomon said that as nearly as he could remember he had eaten
+twenty-seven--or a hundred and twenty-seven. He couldn't say which--but one
+of those numbers was correct.
+
+Aunt Polly Woodchuck threw up her hands.
+
+"Sakes alive!" she cried. "It's no wonder you don't feel well! What you
+need is a change of food. And it's lucky you came to me now. If you'd gone
+on like that much longer I'd hate to say what might have happened to you.
+You'd have had dyspepsia, or some other sort of misery in your stomach."
+
+"What shall I do?" asked Solomon Owl. "Insects are scarce at this season
+of the year. Of course, there are frogs--but I don't seem to care for them.
+And there are fish--but they're not easy to get, for they don't come out of
+the water and sit on the bank, as the frogs do."
+
+"How about pullets?" Aunt Polly inquired.
+
+At that Solomon Owl let out a long row of hoots, because he was pleased.
+
+"The very thing!" he cried. "That's what I've been wanting all this time.
+And I never guessed it.... I'll pay you for your advice the next time I
+see you," he told Aunt Polly. And Solomon Owl hurried away before she
+could stop him. Since he had no intention of visiting her on ground-hog
+day, he knew it would be spring before he saw Aunt Polly Woodchuck again.
+
+The old lady scolded a bit. And it did not make her feel any pleasanter to
+hear Solomon's mocking laughter, which grew fainter and fainter as he left
+the pasture behind him. Then she went inside her house, for she was fast
+growing sleepy. And she wanted to set things to rights before she began
+her long winter's nap.
+
+Meanwhile, Solomon Owl roamed restlessly through the woods. There was only
+one place in the neighborhood where he could get a pullet. That was at
+Farmer Green's chicken house. And for some reason he did not care to visit
+the farm buildings until it grew darker.
+
+So he amused himself by making the woods echo with his strange cry,
+"_Whoo-whoo-whoo, whoo-whoo, to-whoo-ah!_" And now and then he threw in a
+few "_wha-whas_," just for extra measure.
+
+Many of the forest folk who heard him remarked that Solomon Owl seemed to
+be in extra fine spirits.
+
+"Probably it's the hunter's moon that pleases him!" Jimmy Rabbit remarked
+to a friend of his. "I've always noticed that old Solomon makes more noise
+on moonlight nights than at any other time."
+
+The hunter's moon, big and yellow and round, was just rising over Blue
+Mountain. But for once it was not the moon that made Solomon Owl so
+talkative. He was in fine feather, so to speak, because he was hoping to
+have a fat pullet for his supper. And as for the moon, he would have been
+just as pleased had there been none at all that night. For Solomon Owl
+never cared to be seen when he visited Farmer Green's chicken house.
+
+
+
+
+
+VII
+THE BLAZING EYES
+
+
+It was some three hours after sunset when Solomon Owl at last reached
+Farmer Green's place. All was quiet in the chicken house because the hens
+and roosters and their families had long since gone to roost. And except
+for a light that shone through a window, the farmhouse showed not a sign
+of life.
+
+Everything was as Solomon Owl wished it--or so he thought, at least, as he
+alighted in a tree in the yard to look about him. He wanted no one to
+interrupt him when he should go nosing around the chicken house, to find
+an opening.
+
+To his annoyance, he had not sat long in the tree when the wood-shed door
+opened. And Solomon stared in amazement at the strange sight he saw.
+
+A great head appeared, with eyes and mouth--yes! and nose, too--all a
+glaring flame color. Solomon had never seen such a horrible face on man or
+bird or beast. But he was sure it was a man, for he heard a laugh that was
+not to be mistaken for either a beast's or a bird's. And the worst of it
+was, those blazing eyes were turned squarely toward Farmer Green's chicken
+house!
+
+Solomon Owl was too wary to go for his fat pullet just then. He decided
+that he would wait quietly in the tree for a time, hoping that the man
+would go away.
+
+While Solomon watched him the stranger neither moved nor spoke. And, of
+course, Solomon Owl was growing hungrier every minute. So at last he felt
+that he simply _must_ say something.
+
+"Who-who-who-are-you?" he called out from his tree.
+
+But the strange man did not answer. He did not even turn his head.
+
+"He must be some city person," Solomon Owl said to himself. "He thinks
+he's too good to speak to a countryman like me."
+
+Then Solomon sat up and listened. He heard a scratching sound. And soon he
+saw a plump figure crawl right up into his tree-top.
+
+It was Fatty Coon!
+
+"What are you doing here?" Solomon Owl asked in a low voice, which was not
+any too pleasant.
+
+"I'm out for an airing," Fatty answered. "Beautiful night--isn't it?"
+
+But Solomon Owl was not interested in the weather. "I don't suppose you've
+come down here to get a chicken, have you?" he inquired.
+
+Fatty Coon seemed greatly surprised at the question.
+
+"Why--no!" he exclaimed. "But now that you speak of it, it reminds me that
+Farmer Green's saving a pullet for me. He was heard to say not long ago
+that he would like to catch me taking one of his hens. So he must have one
+for me. And I don't want to disappoint him."
+
+At first Solomon Owl didn't know what answer to make. But at last he
+turned his head toward Fatty.
+
+"Why don't you go and get your pullet now?" he asked.
+
+"There's that man down below, with the glaring eyes--" said Fatty Coon.
+"I've been waiting around here for quite a long time and he hasn't looked
+away from the chicken house even once.... Do you know him?"
+
+"No! And I don't want to!" said Solomon Owl.
+
+"S-sh!" Fatty Coon held up a warning hand. "Who's that?" he asked, peering
+down at a dark object at the foot of their tree.
+
+Then both he and Solomon saw that it was Tommy Fox, sitting on his
+haunches and staring at the big head, with its blazing eyes and nose and
+mouth.
+
+"Not looking for chickens, I suppose?" Solomon Owl called in a low tone,
+which was hardly more than a whisper.
+
+But Tommy Fox's sharp ears heard him easily. And he looked up, licking his
+chops as if he were very hungry indeed. And all the while the stranger
+continued to stare straight at the chicken house, as if he did not intend
+to let anybody go
+
+prowling about that long, low building to steal any of Farmer Green's
+poultry.
+
+It was no wonder that the three chicken-lovers (two in the tree and one
+beneath it) hesitated. If the queer man had only spoken they might not
+have been so timid. But he said never a word.
+
+
+
+
+
+VIII
+WATCHING THE CHICKENS
+
+
+Solomon Owl and Fatty Coon couldn't help laughing at what Tommy Fox said
+to them, as they sat in their tree near the farmhouse, looking down at him
+in the moonlight.
+
+"I'm here to watch Farmer Green's chickens for him--" said he--"to see that
+no rat--or anybody else--runs away with a pullet."
+
+"Farmer Green has someone else watching for him to-night," said Solomon
+Owl, when he had stopped laughing. "There's that strange man! You can see
+how he keeps his glaring eyes fixed on the chicken house. And unless I'm
+mistaken, he's on the lookout for _you_."
+
+"No such thing!" Tommy Fox snapped. And he looked up at Solomon as if he
+wished that he could climb the tree.
+
+"Here comes somebody else!" Fatty Coon exclaimed suddenly. His keen eyes
+had caught sight of Jimmy Rabbit, hopping along on his way to the
+vegetable garden, to see if he couldn't find a stray cabbage or a turnip.
+
+Solomon Owl called to him. Whereupon, Jimmy Rabbit promptly sat up and
+looked at the odd trio. If it hadn't been for Tommy Fox he would have
+drawn nearer.
+
+"Do you know that stranger?" Solomon Owl asked him, pointing out the
+horrible head to Jimmy.
+
+"I haven't the pleasure," said Jimmy Rabbit, after he had taken a good
+look.
+
+"Well," said Solomon, "won't you kindly speak to him; and ask him to go
+away?"
+
+"Certainly!" answered Jimmy Rabbit, who always tried to be obliging.
+
+"I hope the stranger won't eat him," remarked Tommy Fox, "because I hope
+to do that some day, myself."
+
+It was queer--but Jimmy Rabbit was the only one of the four that wasn't
+afraid of those glaring features. He hopped straight up to the big round
+head, which was just a bit higher than one of the fence posts, against
+which the stranger seemed to be leaning. And after a moment or two Jimmy
+Rabbit called to Solomon and Fatty and Tommy Fox:
+
+"He won't go away! He's going to stay right where he is!"
+
+"Come here a minute!" said Tommy.
+
+Jimmy Rabbit shook his head.
+
+"You come over here!" he answered. And he did not stir from the side of
+the stranger. He knew very well that Tommy Fox was afraid of the man with
+the head with the glaring eyes.
+
+As for Tommy Fox, he did not even reply--that is, to Jimmy Rabbit. But he
+spoke his mind freely enough to his two friends in the tree.
+
+"It seems to me one of you ought to do something," said he. "We'll eat no
+pullets to-night if we can't get rid of this meddlesome stranger."
+
+Fatty Coon quite agreed with him.
+
+"The one who was here first is the one to act!" Fatty declared. "That's
+_you_!" he told Solomon Owl.
+
+So Solomon Owl felt most uncomfortable.
+
+"I don't know what I can do," he said. "I spoke to the stranger--asked him
+who he was. And he wouldn't answer me."
+
+"Can't you frighten him away?" Tommy Fox inquired. "Fly right over his
+head and give him a blow with your wing as you pass!"
+
+Solomon Owl coughed. He was embarrassed, to say the least.
+
+"He's afraid!" Fatty Coon cried. And both he and Tommy Fox kept repeating,
+over and over again, "He's afraid! He's afraid! He's afraid!"
+
+It was really more than Solomon Owl could stand.
+
+"I'm not!" he retorted angrily. "Watch me and you'll see!" And without
+another word he darted out of the tree and swooped down upon the stranger,
+just brushing the top of his head. Solomon Owl knew at once that he had
+knocked something off the top of that dreadful head--something that fell to
+the ground and made Jimmy Rabbit jump nervously.
+
+Then Solomon returned to his perch in the tree.
+
+"He hasn't moved," he said. "But I knocked off his hat."
+
+"You took off the top of his head!" cried Fatty Coon in great excitement.
+"Look! The inside of his head is afire."
+
+And peering down from the tree-top, Solomon Owl saw that Fatty Coon had
+told the truth.
+
+
+
+
+
+IX
+HALLOWE'EN
+
+
+Solomon Owl was afraid of fire. And when he looked down from his perch in
+the tree and saw, through the hole in the stranger's crown, that all was
+aglow inside his big, round head, Solomon couldn't help voicing his
+horror. He "_whoo-whooed_" so loudly that Tommy Fox, at the foot of the
+tree, asked him what on earth was the matter.
+
+"His head's all afire!" Solomon Owl told him. "That's what makes his eyes
+glare so. And that's why the fire shines through his mouth and his nose,
+too. It's no wonder he didn't answer my question--for, of course, his
+tongue must certainly be burned to a cinder."
+
+"Then it ought to be safe for anybody to enter the chicken house," Tommy
+Fox observed. "What could the stranger do, when he's in such a fix?"
+
+"He could set the chicken house afire, if he followed you inside," replied
+Solomon Owl wisely. "And I, for one, am not going near the pullets
+to-night."
+
+"Nor I!" Fatty Coon echoed. "I'm going straight to the cornfield. The corn
+is still standing there in shocks; and I ought to find enough ears to make
+a good meal."
+
+But Solomon Owl and Tommy Fox were not interested in corn. They never ate
+it. And so it is not surprising that they should be greatly disappointed.
+After a person has his mouth all made up for chicken it is hard to think
+of anything that would taste even half as good.
+
+"It's queer he doesn't go and hold his head under the pump," said Solomon
+Owl. "That's what I should do, if I were he."
+
+"Jimmy Rabbit had better not go too near him, or he'll get singed," said
+Tommy Fox, anxiously. "I don't want anything to happen to _him_."
+
+"Jimmy Rabbit is very careless," Solomon declared. "I don't see what he's
+thinking of--going so near a fire! It makes me altogether too nervous to
+stay here. And I'm going away at once."
+
+Tommy Fox said that he felt the same way. And the moment Fatty Coon, with
+his sharp claws, started to crawl down the tree on his way to the
+cornfield, Tommy Fox hurried off without even stopping to say good-bye.
+
+"_Haw-haw-haw-hoo_!" laughed Solomon Owl. "Tommy Fox is afraid of you!" he
+told Fatty Coon.
+
+But Fatty didn't seem to hear him. He was thinking only of the supper of
+corn that he was going to have.
+
+"Better come away!" Solomon Owl called to Jimmy Rabbit, turning his head
+toward the fence where Jimmy had been lingering near the hot-headed
+stranger.
+
+But Jimmy Rabbit didn't answer him, either. He was no longer there. The
+moment he had seen Tommy Fox bounding off across the meadow Jimmy had
+started at once for Farmer Green's vegetable garden.
+
+So Solomon Owl was the last to leave.
+
+"There's really nothing else I can do," he remarked to himself. "I don't
+know what Aunt Polly Woodchuck would say if she knew that I didn't follow
+her advice to-night and eat a pullet for my supper.... But I've tried my
+best.... And that's all anybody can do."
+
+Solomon Owl was upset all the rest of that night. And just before daybreak
+he visited the farmyard again, to see whether the strange man with the
+flaring head still watched the chicken house. And Solomon found that he
+had vanished.
+
+So Solomon Owl alighted on the fence. There was nothing there except a
+hollowed-out pumpkin, with a few holes cut in it, which someone had left
+on one of the fence-posts.
+
+"Good!" said he. "Maybe I can get my pullet after all!" He turned to fly
+to the chicken house. But just then the woodshed door opened again. And
+Farmer Green stepped outside, with a lantern in his hand. He was going to
+the barn to milk the cows. But Solomon Owl did not wait to learn anything
+more.
+
+He hurried away to his house among the hemlocks. And having quickly
+settled himself for a good nap, he was soon fast asleep.
+
+That was how Johnnie Green's jack-o'-lantern kept Tommy Fox and Fatty Coon
+and Solomon Owl from taking any chickens on Hallowe'en.
+
+
+
+
+
+X
+A TROUBLESOME WISHBONE
+
+
+Solomon Owl had pains--sharp pains--underneath his waistcoat. And not
+knowing what else to do, he set off at once for Aunt Polly Woodchuck's
+house under the hill, in the pasture, which he had not visited since the
+previous fall. Luckily, he found the old lady at home. And quickly he told
+her of his trouble.
+
+"What have you been eating?" she inquired.
+
+"I've followed your advice. I've been eating chickens," said he--"very
+small chickens, because they were all I could get."
+
+Aunt Polly Woodchuck, who was an herb doctor--and a good one--regarded him
+through her spectacles.
+
+"I'm afraid," said she, "you don't chew your food properly. Bolting one's
+food is very harmful. It's as bad as not eating anything at all, almost."
+
+Solomon Owl showed plainly that her remark surprised him.
+
+"Why," he exclaimed, "I always swallow my food whole--when it isn't too
+big!"
+
+"Gracious me!" cried Aunt Polly, throwing up both her hands. "It's no
+wonder you're ill. It's no wonder you have pains; and now I know exactly
+what's the matter with you. You have a wishbone inside you. I can feel
+it!" she told him, as she prodded him in the waistcoat.
+
+"I wish you could get it out for me!" said Solomon with a look of
+distress.
+
+"All the wishing in the world won't help you," she answered, "unless we
+can find some way of removing the wishbone so you can wish on that. Then
+I'm sure you would feel better at once."
+
+"This is strange," Solomon mused. "All my life I've been swallowing my
+food without chewing it. And it has never given me any trouble before....
+What shall I do?"
+
+"Don't eat anything for a week," she directed. "And fly against
+tree-trunks as hard as you can. Then come back here after seven days."
+
+Solomon Owl went off in a most doleful frame of mind. It seemed to him
+that he had never seen so many mice and frogs and chipmunks as he came
+across during the following week. But he didn't dare catch a single one,
+on account of what Aunt Polly Woodchuck had said.
+
+His pains, however, grew less from day to day--at least, the pains that had
+first troubled him. But he had others to take their place. Hunger pangs,
+these were! And they were almost as bad as those that had sent him
+hurrying to see Aunt Polly Woodchuck.
+
+On the whole, Solomon passed a very unhappy week. Flying head foremost
+into tree-trunks (as Aunt Polly had instructed him to do) gave him many
+bumps and bruises. So he was glad when the time came for him to return to
+her house in the pasture.
+
+Solomon's neighbors had been so interested in watching him that they were
+all sorry when he ceased his strange actions. Indeed, there was a rumor
+that Solomon had become very angry with Farmer Green and that he was
+trying to knock down some of Farmer Green's trees. Before the end of that
+unpleasant week Solomon had often noticed as many as twenty-four of the
+forest folk following him about, hoping to see a tree fall.
+
+But they were all disappointed. However, they enjoyed the sight of Solomon
+hurling himself against tree-trunks. And the louder he groaned, the more
+people gathered around him.
+
+
+
+
+
+XI
+CURED AT LAST
+
+
+"How do you feel now?" Aunt Polly Woodchuck asked Solomon Owl, when he had
+come back to her house after a week's absence.
+
+"No better!" he groaned. "I still have pains. But they seem to have moved
+and scattered all over me."
+
+"Good!" she exclaimed with a smile. "You _are_ much better, though you
+didn't know it. The wishbone is broken. You broke it by flying against the
+trees. And you ought not to have any more trouble. But let me examine
+you!" she said, prodding him in the waistcoat once more.
+
+"This is odd!" she continued a bit later. "I can feel the wishbone more
+plainly than ever."
+
+"That's my own wishbone!" Solomon cried indignantly. "I've grown so thin
+through not eating that it's a wonder you can't feel my backbone, too."
+
+Aunt Polly Woodchuck looked surprised.
+
+"Perhaps you're right!" said she. "Not having a wishbone of my own, I
+forgot that you had one."
+
+A look of disgust came over Solomon Owl's face.
+
+"You're a very poor doctor," he told her. "Here you've kept me from eating
+for a whole week--and I don't believe it was necessary at all!"
+
+"Well, you're better, aren't you?" she asked him.
+
+"I shall be as soon as I have a good meal," replied Solomon Owl,
+hopefully.
+
+"You ought not to eat anything for another week," Aunt Polly told him
+solemnly.
+
+"Nonsense!" he cried.
+
+"I'm a doctor; and I ought to know best," she insisted.
+
+But Solomon Owl hooted rudely.
+
+"I'll never come to you for advice any more," he declared. "I firmly
+believe that my whole trouble was simply that I've been eating too
+sparingly. And I shall take good care to see that it doesn't happen
+again."
+
+No one had ever spoken to Aunt Polly in quite that fashion--though old Mr.
+Crow had complained one time that she had cured him _too quickly_. But she
+did not lose her temper, in spite of Solomon's jeers.
+
+"You'll be back here again the very next time you're ill," she remarked.
+"And if you continue to swallow your food whole----"
+
+But Solomon Owl did not even wait to hear what she said. He was so
+impolite that he flew away while she was talking. And since it was then
+almost dark, and a good time to look for field mice, he began his night's
+hunting right there in Farmer Green's pasture.
+
+By morning Solomon was so plump that Aunt Polly Woodchuck would have had a
+good deal of trouble finding his wishbone. But since he did not visit her
+again, she had no further chance to prod him in the waistcoat.
+
+Afterward, Solomon heard a bit of gossip that annoyed him. A friend of his
+reported that Aunt Polly Woodchuck was going about and telling everybody
+how she had saved Solomon's life.
+
+"Mice!" he exclaimed (he often said that when some would have said
+"Rats!"). "There's not a word of truth in her claim. And if people in this
+neighborhood keep on taking her advice and her catnip tea they're going to
+be sorry some day. For they'll be really ill the first thing they know.
+And then what will they do?"
+
+
+
+
+
+XII
+BENJAMIN BAT
+
+
+Solomon Owl was by no means the only night-prowler in Pleasant Valley. He
+had neighbors that chose to sleep in the daytime, so they might roam
+through the woods and fields after dark. One of these was Benjamin Bat.
+And furthermore, he was the color of night itself.
+
+Now, Benjamin Bat was an odd chap. When he was still he liked to hang by
+his feet, upside down. And when he was flying he sailed about in a zigzag,
+helter-skelter fashion. He went in so many different directions, turning
+this way and that, one could never tell where he was going. One might say
+that his life was just one continual dodge--when he wasn't resting with his
+heels where his head ought to be.
+
+A good many of Benjamin Bat's friends said he certainly must be crazy,
+because he didn't do as they did. But that never made the slightest
+difference in Benjamin Bat's habits. He continued to zigzag through
+life--and hang by his heels--just the same. Perhaps he thought that all
+other people were crazy because they didn't do likewise.
+
+Benjamin often dodged across Solomon Owl's path, when Solomon was hunting
+for field mice. And since Benjamin was the least bit like a mouse
+himself--except for his wings--there was a time, once, when Solomon tried to
+catch him.
+
+But Solomon Owl soon found that chasing Benjamin Bat made him dizzy. If
+Benjamin hadn't been used to hanging head downward, maybe he would have
+been dizzy, too.
+
+Though the two often saw each other, Benjamin Bat never seemed to care to
+stop for a chat with Solomon Owl. One night, however, Benjamin actually
+called to Solomon and asked his advice. He was in trouble. And he knew
+that Solomon Owl was supposed by some to be the wisest old fellow for
+miles around.
+
+It was almost morning. And Solomon Owl was hurrying home, because a
+terrible storm had arisen. The lightning was flashing, and peals of
+thunder crashed through the woods. Big drops of rain were already
+pattering down. But Solomon Owl did not care, for he had almost reached
+his house in the hollow hemlock near the foot of Blue Mountain.
+
+It was different with Benjamin Bat. That night he had strayed a long
+distance from his home in Cedar Swamp. And he didn't know what to do. "I
+want to get under cover, somewhere," he told Solomon Owl. "You don't know
+of a good place near-by, do you, where I can get out of the storm and take
+a nap?"
+
+"Why, yes!" answered Solomon Owl. "Come right along to my house and spend
+the day with me!"
+
+But Benjamin Bat did not like the suggestion at all.
+
+"I'm afraid I might crowd, you," he said. He was thinking of the time when
+Solomon Owl had chased him. And sleeping in Solomon Owl's house seemed far
+from a safe thing to do.
+
+                            [_Illustration 2_]
+
+                     Benjamin Asked Solomon's Advice
+
+
+Solomon was wise enough to guess what was going on inside Benjamin's head.
+
+"Come along!" he said. "We'll both be asleep before we know it. I'm sorry
+I can't offer you something to eat. But I haven't a morsel of food in my
+house. No doubt, though, you've just had a good meal. _I_ ate seven mice
+to-night. And I certainly couldn't eat anything more."
+
+When Solomon Owl told him that, Benjamin Bat thought perhaps there was no
+danger, after all. And since the rain was falling harder and harder every
+moment, he thanked Solomon and said he would be glad to accent his
+invitation.
+
+"Follow me, then!" said Solomon Owl. And he led the way to his home in the
+hemlock.
+
+For once, Benjamin Bat flew in a fairly straight line, though he did a
+little dodging, because he couldn't help it.
+
+There was more room inside Solomon's house than Benjamin Bat had supposed.
+While Benjamin was looking about and telling Solomon that he had a fine
+home, his host quickly made a bed of leaves in one corner of the
+room--there was only one room, of course.
+
+"That's for you!" said Solomon Owl. "I always sleep on the other side of
+the house." And without waiting even to make sure that his guest was
+comfortable, Solomon Owl lay down and began to snore--for he was very
+sleepy.
+
+It was so cozy there that Benjamin Bat was glad, already, that he had
+accepted Solomon's invitation.
+
+
+
+
+
+XIII
+THE LUCKY GUEST
+
+
+In the middle of the day Solomon Owl happened to awake. He was sorry that
+he hadn't slept until sunset, because he was very hungry. Knowing that it
+was light outside his hollow tree, he didn't want to leave home to find
+something to eat.
+
+Then, suddenly, he remembered that he had brought Benjamin Bat to his
+house early that morning, so Benjamin might escape the storm.... Why not
+eat Benjamin Bat?
+
+As soon as the thought occurred to him, Solomon Owl liked it. And he moved
+stealthily over to the bed of leaves he had made for his guest just before
+daybreak.
+
+But Benjamin Bat was not there. Though Solomon looked in every nook and
+cranny of his one-room house, he did not find him.
+
+"He must have left as soon as it stopped raining," said Solomon Owl to
+himself. "He might at least have waited to thank me for giving him a day's
+lodging. It's the last time I'll ever bring any worthless vagabond into my
+house. And I ought to have known better than to have anything to do with a
+crazy person like Benjamin Bat."
+
+Anybody can see that Solomon Owl was displeased. But it was not at all
+astonishing, if one stops to remember how hungry he was, and that he had
+expected to enjoy a good meal without the trouble of going away from home
+to get it.
+
+Solomon Owl went to the door of his house and looked out. The sun was
+shining so brightly that after blinking in his doorway for a few minutes
+he decided that he would go to bed again and try to sleep until dusk. He
+never liked bright days. "They're so dismal!" he used to say. "Give me a
+good, dark night and I'm happy, for there's nothing more cheering than
+gloom."
+
+In spite of the pangs of hunger that gnawed inside him, Solomon at last
+succeeded in falling asleep once more. And he dreamed that he chased
+Benjamin Bat three times around Blue Mountain, and then three times back
+again, in the opposite direction. But he never could catch him, because
+Benjamin Bat simply wouldn't fly straight. His zigzag course was so
+confusing that even in his dream Solomon Owl grew dizzy.
+
+Now, Benjamin Bat was in Solomon's house all the time. And the reason why
+Solomon Owl hadn't found him was a very simple one. It was merely that
+Solomon hadn't looked in the right place.
+
+Benjamin Bat was hidden--as you might say--where his hungry host never once
+thought of looking for him. And being asleep all the while, Benjamin
+didn't once move or make the slightest noise.
+
+If he had snored, or sneezed, or rustled his wings, no doubt Solomon Owl
+would have found him.
+
+When Benjamin awakened, late in the afternoon, Solomon was still sleeping.
+And Benjamin crept through the door and went out into the gathering
+twilight, without arousing Solomon.
+
+"I'll thank him the next time I meet him," Benjamin Bat decided. And he
+staggered away through the air as if he did not quite know, himself, where
+he was going. But, of course, that was only his queer way of flying.
+
+When he told his friends where he had spent the day they were astonished.
+
+"How did you ever dare do anything so dangerous as sleeping in Solomon
+Owl's house?" they all asked him.
+
+But Benjamin Bat only said, "Oh! There was nothing to be afraid of." And
+he began to feel quite important.
+
+
+
+
+
+XIV
+HANGING BY THE HEELS
+
+
+It was several nights before Solomon Owl and Benjamin Bat chanced to meet
+again in the forest.
+
+"Hullo!" said Solomon.
+
+"Hullo!" said Benjamin Bat. "I'm glad to see you, because I want to thank
+you for letting me spend the day in your house, so I wouldn't have to stay
+out in the storm."
+
+"You must be a light sleeper," Solomon observed. (He did not tell Benjamin
+that he was welcome!)
+
+"What makes you think that?" Benjamin Bat inquired.
+
+"Why--you left my house before noon," Solomon told him.
+
+"Oh, no!" said Benjamin. "I slept soundly until sunset. When I came away
+the crickets were chirping. And I was surprised that you hadn't waked up
+yourself."
+
+"You were gone before midday," Solomon Owl insisted. And they had
+something very like a dispute, while Solomon Owl sat in one tree and
+Benjamin Bat hung head downward from another. "I ought to know," said
+Solomon. "I was awake about noon; and I looked everywhere for you."
+
+"What for?" asked Benjamin.
+
+Naturally, Solomon didn't like to tell him that he had intended to eat
+him. So he looked wise--and said nothing.
+
+"You didn't look on the ceiling, did you?" Benjamin Bat inquired.
+
+"No, indeed!" Solomon Owl exclaimed.
+
+"Well, that's where I was, hanging by my feet," Benjamin Bat informed him.
+
+Solomon Owl certainly was surprised to hear that.
+
+"The idea!" he cried. "You're a queer one! I never once thought of looking
+_on the ceiling_ for a _luncheon_!" He was so astonished that he spoke
+before he thought how oddly his remark would sound to another.
+
+When he heard what Solomon Owl said, Benjamin Bat knew at once that
+Solomon had meant to eat him. And he was so frightened that he dropped
+from the limb to which he was clinging and flew off as fast as he could
+go. For once in his life he flew in a straight line, with no zigzags at
+all, he was in such a hurry to get away from Solomon Owl, who--for all he
+knew--might still be very hungry.
+
+But Solomon Owl had caught so many mice that night that he didn't feel
+like chasing anybody. So he sat motionless in the tree, merely turning his
+head to watch Benjamin sailing away through the dusky woods. He noticed
+that Benjamin didn't dodge at all--except when there was a tree in his way.
+And he wondered what the reason was.
+
+"Perhaps he's not so crazy as I supposed," said Solomon Owl to himself.
+And ever afterward, when he happened to awake and feel hungry, Solomon Owl
+used to look up at the ceiling above him and wish that Benjamin Bat was
+there.
+
+But Benjamin Bat never cared to have anything more to do with Solomon Owl.
+
+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.
+
+"Why, without going into your house!" said Jimmy Rabbit. "I can't climb a
+tree, you know. And neither can Tommy Fox. We might have a dispute
+to-night; and how could you ever settle it?"
+
+"Oh, I shall be willing to step outside," Solomon told him. And he refused
+to change the sign, declaring that he liked it just as it was.
+
+Now, there was only one trouble with Solomon Owl's settling of disputes.
+Many of the forest folk wanted to see him in the daytime. And _night_ was
+the only time _he_ was willing to see them. But he heard so many
+objections to that arrangement that in the end Solomon agreed to meet
+people at dusk and at dawn, when it was neither very dark nor very light.
+On the whole he found that way very satisfactory, because there was just
+enough light at dusk and at dawn to make him blink. And when Solomon
+blinked he looked even wiser than ever.
+
+Well, the first disputing pair that came to Solomon's tree after he hung
+out his new sign were old Mr. Crow and Jasper Jay. They reached the
+hemlock grove soon after sunset and squalled loudly for Solomon. "Hurry!"
+Mr. Crow cried, as soon as Solomon Owl stepped outside his door. "It will
+be dark before we know it; and it's almost our bedtime."
+
+"What's your difficulty?" Solomon asked them.
+
+Mr. Crow looked at Jasper Jay. And then he looked at Solomon again.
+
+"Maybe you won't like to hear it," he said. And he winked at Jasper. "But
+you've put out this sign--so we've come here."
+
+"You've done just right!" exclaimed Solomon Owl. "And as for my not liking
+to hear the trouble, it's your dispute and not mine. So I don't see how it
+concerns me--except to settle it."
+
+"Very Well," Mr. Crow answered. "The dispute, then, is this: Jasper says
+that in spite of your looking so wise, you're really the stupidest person
+in Pleasant Valley."
+
+"He does, eh?" cried Solomon Owl, while Jasper Jay laughed loudly. "And
+you, of course, do not agree with him," Solomon continued.
+
+"I do not!" Mr. Crow declared.
+
+"Good!" said Solomon, nodding his head approvingly.
+
+"No, I do not agree with Jasper Jay," Mr. Crow said. "I claim that there's
+one other person more stupid than you are--and that's Fatty Coon."
+
+Well, Solomon Owl certainly was displeased. And it didn't make him feel
+any happier to hear Jasper Jay's boisterous shouts, or the hoarse
+"_haw-haw_" of old Mr. Crow.
+
+"I hope you can decide which one of us is right," Mr. Crow ventured.
+
+"I am, of course!" cried Jasper Jay.
+
+"You're not!" Mr. Crow shouted. And to Solomon Owl he said, "We've been
+disputing like this all day long."
+
+Solomon Owl didn't know what to say. If he announced that Jasper was right
+it would be the same as admitting that he was the stupidest person in the
+whole neighborhood. And if he said that old Mr. Crow's opinion was correct
+he would not be much better off. Naturally he didn't want to tell either
+of them that he was right.
+
+"I'll have to think about this," Solomon observed at last.
+
+"We don't want to wait," said Mr. Crow. "If we keep on disputing we're
+likely to have a fight."
+
+Now, Solomon Owl hoped that they would have a fight. So he was determined
+to keep them waiting for his decision.
+
+"Come back to-morrow at this time," he said.
+
+
+
+
+
+XVI
+NINE FIGHTS
+
+
+The next evening, just at dusk, Jasper Jay and old Mr. Crow returned to
+Solomon Owl's house, looking much bedraggled. One of Mr. Crow's eyes was
+almost closed; and Jasper Jay's crest seemed to have been torn half off
+his head.
+
+"What's the matter?" asked Solomon, as soon as he saw them.
+
+"We've had three fights," said Jasper Jay.
+
+"Yes! And I've whipped him each time!" cried Mr. Crow. "So I must be in
+the right. And you'd better decide our dispute in my favor at once."
+
+But Solomon Owl was still in no hurry.
+
+"It's a difficult question to settle,' said he. 'I don't want to make any
+mistake. So I shall have to ask you to come back here to-morrow at this
+time."
+
+Both Jasper and Mr. Crow seemed disappointed. Although Mr. Crow had won
+each fight, he was very weary, for he was older than Jasper Jay.
+
+As they went off, Solomon Owl began to feel much pleased with himself.
+
+The following evening, at sunset, old Mr. Crow and Jasper Jay visited
+Solomon Owl once more. And they looked more battered than ever.
+
+"We've had three more fights," said Mr. Crow.
+
+"Yes! And I won each time!" Jasper Jay piped up. "So I must be in the
+right. And you'd better decide in my favor without any further delay."
+
+Solomon Owl thought deeply for some time.
+
+"Maybe I ought to wait until to-morrow----" he began.
+
+But his callers both shouted "No!"
+
+"Well," said Solomon, "Mr. Crow has won three fights; and Jasper Jay has
+won three. So it is certain that each must be in the wrong."
+
+But that announcement did not satisfy Jasper and Mr. Crow. And they left
+the hemlock grove, disputing more loudly than ever.
+
+And the next day, at dusk, they came back again.
+
+"We've had three more fights; and I won!" they both cried at the same
+time.
+
+"That proves my claim," said Solomon Owl. "You're both wrong."
+
+They whispered together for a few minutes.
+
+"We don't like your way of settling disputes," Mr. Crow remarked shortly.
+"But we've decided to stop quarreling."
+
+"Good!" said Solomon Owl. "That shows that you are sensible."
+
+"Yes!" replied Jasper. "We've decided to stop quarreling and fight _you_!"
+
+"Wait a moment!" said Solomon Owl hastily, as they drew nearer. "I don't
+want my new suit spoiled." And he ducked inside the hollow tree before
+they could reach him.
+
+Jasper and Mr. Crow waited and waited. But Solomon Owl did not reappear.
+And since his two visitors did not dare follow him into the dark cavern
+where he lived, they decided at last that they would go home--and get into
+bed.
+
+"Let's take away his sign, anyhow!" Jasper Jay suggested.
+
+So they pulled down Solomon's sign, which said "Disputes Settled Within,"
+and they carried it off with them and hid it in some bushes.
+
+That same night Solomon Owl hunted for it for a long time. But he never
+found it.
+
+He decided not to hang out another, for he saw that settling disputes was
+a dangerous business.
+
+
+
+
+
+XVII
+COUSIN SIMON SCREECHER
+
+
+Solomon Owl had a small cousin named Simon Screecher. He was unlike
+Solomon in some respects, because he always wore ear-tufts, and his eyes
+were yellow instead of black. But in some other ways he was no different
+from Solomon Owl, for he was a noisy chap and dearly loved mice--to eat.
+
+It happened that the two met in the woods one fine fall evening; and they
+agreed to go hunting mice together.
+
+Now, being so much smaller than Solomon, Simon Screecher was all the
+spryer. In fact, he was so active that he could catch mice faster than
+Solomon Owl could capture them. And they had not hunted long before
+Solomon discovered that Simon had succeeded in disposing of six mice to
+his three.
+
+That discovery did not please Solomon at all.
+
+"Look here!" he said. "Since we are hunting together it's only fair to
+divide what we catch, half and half."
+
+Simon Screecher hesitated. But after reflecting that his cousin was very
+big and very strong, he agreed to Solomon's suggestion.
+
+So they resumed their hunting. And every time one of them caught two mice,
+he gave one mouse to his cousin.
+
+Still Solomon Owl was not satisfied.
+
+"Wait a moment!" Solomon called to Simon Screecher. "It has just occurred
+to me that I am more than twice as big as you are; so I ought to have
+twice as many mice as you."
+
+This time Simon Screecher hesitated longer. He did not like the second
+suggestion even as well as the first. And in the end he said as much, too.
+
+But Solomon Owl insisted that it was only fair.
+
+"You surely ought to be glad to please your own cousin," he told Simon.
+
+"It's not that," said Simon Screecher. "It seems to me that since I'm not
+half your size, I ought to have twice as many mice to eat, so I'll grow
+bigger."
+
+Well, Solomon Owl hadn't thought of that. He was puzzled to know what to
+say. And he wanted time in which to ponder.
+
+"I'll think over what you say," he told Simon Screecher. "And now, since
+it's almost dawn, we'd better not hunt any longer to-night. But I'll meet
+you again at dusk if you'll come to my house."
+
+"Very well, Cousin Solomon!" Simon answered. "I'm sure that after you've
+had a good sleep you'll be ready to agree with me."
+
+"If that's the case, I may not take any nap at all," Solomon replied.
+
+"Oh! You ought to have your rest!" his cousin exclaimed. Simon knew that
+if Solomon went all day without sleep he would be frightfully peevish by
+nightfall.
+
+"Well--I'll try to get forty winks," Solomon promised. "But I don't believe
+I can get more than that, because I have so much on my mind that I'm sure
+to be wakeful."
+
+Simon Screecher was somewhat worried as they parted. His wailing,
+tremulous whistle, which floated through the shadowy woods, showed that he
+was far from happy.
+
+
+
+
+
+XVIII
+XVIII - A COUSINLY QUARREL
+
+
+It proved to be just as Solomon Owl had told his cousin, Simon Screecher.
+Solomon had so much on his mind that he had no sooner fallen asleep than
+he awoke again, to study over the question that perplexed him. He
+certainly did not want Simon to have twice as many mice as he. But Simon's
+argument was a good one. He had said that since Solomon was more than
+twice his size, it was proper that he should have a chance to grow. And
+everybody knew--Solomon reflected--everybody knew that _eating_ made one
+larger.
+
+The longer Solomon pondered, the farther he seemed from any answer that he
+liked. And he had begun to fear that he would not succeed in getting more
+than thirty-nine winks all day--instead of forty--when all at once an idea
+came into his mind.
+
+Solomon knew right away that he had nothing more to worry about. He
+dropped into a sound sleep with a pleasant smile upon his usually solemn
+face. And when he opened his eyes again it was time for Simon Screecher to
+arrive.
+
+Yes! Solomon could hear his cousin's whistle even then. So he hurried to
+his door; and there was Simon, sitting on a limb of the big hemlock
+waiting for him!
+
+"It's all right!" said Solomon to his cousin. "I agree to your suggestion.
+We'll hunt together again to-night; and if you will give me one-third of
+all the mice you catch, I promise to give you two-thirds of all the mice
+that I capture."
+
+"Good!" said Simon Screecher. And he looked vastly relieved. "Just hoot
+when you have any mice for me!"
+
+"Whistle when you have any for me!" Solomon Owl replied.
+
+And at that they started out for their night's sport. It was not long
+before Simon Screecher's well known whistle brought Solomon hurrying to
+him. Simon already had three mice, one of which he gave to Solomon,
+according to their agreement.
+
+That same thing happened several times; until at last Simon Screecher
+began to grumble.
+
+"What's the matter?" he asked his cousin. "You are not hooting, as you
+promised you would."
+
+"But I haven't caught any mice yet!" Solomon Owl replied.
+
+                            [_Illustration 3_]
+
+                      "It's All Right," Said Solomon
+
+
+Again and again and again Simon's call summoned Solomon. But not once did
+Solomon's summon Simon. And all the time Simon Screecher grew more
+discontented. Toward the end of the night he declared flatly that he
+wasn't going to hunt any more with his cousin.
+
+"I've done exactly as I agreed!" Solomon Owl protested.
+
+"You're altogether too slow and clumsy," Simon Screecher told him bluntly.
+"If I'm going to hunt with anybody after this I'm going to choose someone
+that's as spry as I am. There's no sense in my working for you. Here I've
+toiled all night long and I'm still hungry, for I've given you a third of
+my food."
+
+They parted then--and none too pleasantly.
+
+In Simon's whistle, as he flew away toward his home, there was
+unmistakable anger. But Solomon Owl's answering hoots--while they were not
+exactly sweet--seemed to carry more than a hint of laughter.
+
+One would naturally think that Solomon might have been even hungrier than
+his small cousin. But it was not so. He had had more to eat than usual;
+for he had been very busy catching locusts and katydids--and frogs, too.
+Solomon Owl had not tried to catch a single mouse that night.
+
+You know now the idea that had come to him while he was lying awake in his
+house during the daytime. He had made up his mind that he would not hunt
+for _mice_. And since he had not promised Simon to give him anything else,
+there was no reason why he should not eat all the frogs and katydids and
+locusts that he could find.
+
+Perhaps it was not surprising that Simon Screecher never guessed the
+truth. But he seemed to know that there was something queer about that
+night's hunting, for he never came to Solomon Owl's house again.
+
+
+
+
+
+XIX
+THE SLEET STORM
+
+
+It was winter. And for several days a strong south wind had swept up
+Pleasant Valley. That--as Solomon Owl knew very well--that meant a thaw was
+coming. He was not sorry, because the weather had been bitterly cold.
+
+Well, the thaw came. And the weather grew so warm that Solomon Owl could
+stay out all night without once feeling chilled. He found the change so
+agreeable that he strayed further from home than was his custom. Indeed,
+he was far away on the other side of Blue Mountain at midnight, when it
+began to rain.
+
+Now, that was not quite so pleasant. But still Solomon did not mind
+greatly. It was not until later that he began to feel alarmed, when he
+noticed that flying did not seem so easy as usual.
+
+Solomon had grown heavy all at once--and goodness knows it was not because
+he had overeaten, for food was scarce at that season of the year.
+Moreover, Solomon's wings were strangely stiff. When he moved them they
+_crackled_.
+
+"It must be my joints," he said to himself. "I'm afraid this wetting has
+given me rheumatism." So he started home at once--though it was only
+midnight. But the further he went, the worse he felt--and the harder it was
+to fly.
+
+"I'll have to rest a while," he said to himself at last. So he alighted on
+a limb; for he was more tired than he had ever been in all his life.
+
+But he soon felt so much better that he was ready to start on again. And
+then, to his dismay, Solomon Owl found that he could hardly stir. The
+moment he left his perch he floundered down upon the ground. And though he
+tried his hardest, he couldn't reach the tree again.
+
+The rain was still beating down steadily. And Solomon began to think it a
+bad night to be out. What was worse, the weather was fast turning cold.
+
+"I'm afraid I'll have to stay in bed a week after this," he groaned. "If I
+sit here long, as wet as I am, while the thaw turns into a _freeze_, I
+shall certainly be ill."
+
+Now, if it hadn't been for the rain, Solomon Owl would have had no trouble
+at all. Or if it hadn't been for the freezing cold he would have been in
+no difficulty. Though he didn't know it, his trouble was simply this: The
+rain froze upon him as
+
+fast as it fell, covering him with a coating of ice. It was no wonder that
+he felt strangely heavy--no wonder that he couldn't fly.
+
+There he crouched on the ground, while the rain and sleet beat upon him.
+And the only comforting thought that entered his head was that on so
+stormy a night Tommy Fox and Fatty Coon would be snug and warm in their
+beds. _They_ wouldn't go out in such weather.
+
+And Solomon Owl wished that he, too, had stayed at home that night.
+
+From midnight until almost dawn Solomon Owl sat there. Now and then he
+tried to fly. But it was no use. He could scarcely raise himself off the
+ground.
+
+At last he decided he would have to _walk_ home. Fortunately, a hard crust
+covered the soft snow. So Solomon started off on his long journey.
+
+Flying, Solomon could have covered the distance in a few minutes. But he
+was a slow walker. By the time he reached his home among the hemlocks the
+sun was shining brightly--for the rain had stopped before daybreak.
+
+Solomon wondered how he would ever succeed in reaching his doorway, high
+up in the hollow tree. He gazed helplessly upward. And as he sat there
+mournfully the bright sunshine melted the ice that bound his wings. After
+a time he discovered that he could move freely once more. And then he rose
+quickly in the air and in a twinkling he had disappeared into the darkness
+of his home--that darkness which to him was always so pleasant.
+
+
+
+
+
+XX
+A PAIR OF RED-HEADS
+
+
+In the woods there was hardly one of Solomon Owl's neighbors that couldn't
+point out the big hemlock tree where he lived. And mischievous fellows
+like Reddy Woodpecker sometimes annoyed Solomon a good deal by rapping
+loudly on his door. When he thrust his head angrily out of his house and
+blinked in the sunlight, his tormentors would skip away and laugh. They
+laughed because they knew that they had awakened Solomon Owl. And they
+dodged out of his reach because he was always ill-tempered when anybody
+disturbed his rest in the daytime.
+
+Solomon Owl did not mind so _very_ much so long as that trick was not
+played on him too often. But after a time it became one of Reddy
+Woodpecker's favorite sports. Not only once, but several times a day did
+he go to the hemlock grove to hammer upon Solomon's hollow tree. And each
+time that he brought Solomon Owl to his door Reddy Woodpecker laughed more
+loudly than ever before.
+
+Once Solomon forgot to take off his nightcap (though he wore it in the
+daytime, it really was a nightcap). And Reddy Woodpecker was so amused
+that he shouted at the top of his lungs.
+
+"What's the joke?" asked Solomon Owl in his deep, rumbling voice. He tried
+to look very severe. But it is hard to look any way except funny with a
+nightcap on one's head.
+
+As luck had it, Jasper Jay came hurrying up just then. He had heard Reddy
+Woodpecker's laughter. And if there was a joke he wanted to enjoy it, too.
+
+Jasper Jay, alighting in a small hemlock near Reddy Woodpecker, asked the
+same question that Solomon Owl had just put to his rude caller.
+
+"What's the joke?" inquired Jasper Jay.
+
+Reddy could not speak. He was rocking back and forth upon a limb, choking
+and gasping for breath. But he managed to point to the big tree where
+Solomon Owl lived.
+
+And when Jasper looked, and saw Solomon's great, round, pale, questioning
+face, all tied up in a red nightcap, he began to scream.
+
+They were no ordinary screams--those shrieks of Jasper Jay's. That
+blue-coated rascal was the noisiest of all the feathered folk in Pleasant
+Valley. And now he fairly made the woods echo with his hoarse cries.
+
+"This is the funniest sight I've ever seen!" Jasper Jay said at last, to
+nobody in particular. "I declare, there's a pair of them!"
+
+At that, Reddy Woodpecker suddenly stopped laughing.
+
+"A pair of what?" he asked.
+
+"A pair of red-heads, of course!" Jasper Jay replied. "You've a red
+cap--and so has he!" Jasper pointed at Solomon Owl (a very rude thing to
+do!).
+
+Then two things happened all at once. Solomon Owl snatched off his red
+night-cap--which he had quite forgotten. And Reddy Woodpecker dashed at
+Jasper Jay. He couldn't pull off _his_ red cap, for it grew right on his
+head.
+
+"So that's what you're laughing at, is it?" he cried angrily. And then
+nobody laughed any more--that is, nobody but Solomon Owl.
+
+Solomon was so pleased by the fight that followed between Jasper Jay and
+Reddy Woodpecker that his deep, rumbling laughter could be heard for half
+an hour--even if it _was_ midday. "_Wha-wha! Whoo-ah!_" The sound reached
+the ears of Farmer Green, who was just crossing a neighboring field, on
+his way home to dinner.
+
+"Well, well!" he exclaimed. "I wonder what's happened to that old owl!
+Something must have tickled him--for I never heard an owl laugh in broad
+daylight before."
+
+
+
+
+
+XXI
+AT HOME IN THE HAYSTACK
+
+
+After what happened when he came to his door without remembering to take
+off his red nightcap, Solomon Owl hoped that Reddy Woodpecker would stop
+teasing him.
+
+But it was not so. Having once viewed Solomon's red cap, Reddy Woodpecker
+wanted to see it some more. So he came again and again and knocked on
+Solomon's door.
+
+Solomon Owl, however, remembered each time to remove his nightcap before
+sticking his head out. And it might be said that neither of them was
+exactly pleased. For Reddy Woodpecker was disappointed; and Solomon Owl
+was angry.
+
+Not a day passed that Reddy Woodpecker didn't disturb Solomon's rest at
+least a dozen times. Perhaps if Solomon had just kept still inside his
+house Reddy would have grown tired of bothering him. But Solomon Owl--for
+all he looked so wise--never thought of that.
+
+But he saw before a great while that he would have to make a change of
+some sort--if he wanted to enjoy a good, quiet sleep again.
+
+For a long time Solomon Owl pondered. It was a great puzzle--to know just
+how to outwit Reddy Woodpecker. And Solomon almost despaired of finding a
+way out of the difficulty. But at last an idea came to him, all in a
+flash. He would take his daytime naps somewhere else!
+
+Solomon spent several nights looking for a good place to pass his days.
+And in the end he decided on the meadow. It would be convenient, he
+thought, when he was hunting meadow mice at dawn, if he could stay right
+there, without bothering to go into the woods to sleep.
+
+Since there were no trees in the meadow, but only a few scrubby bushes
+along the stone wall, one might naturally make the mistake of thinking
+that there could not possibly be a nook of any kind that would suit
+Solomon Owl, who could never sleep soundly unless his bedroom was quite
+dark.
+
+But there was one hiding place that Solomon liked almost as well as his
+home in the hollow hemlock. And that was Farmer Green's haystack. He
+burrowed into one side of it and made himself a snug chamber, which was as
+dark as a pocket--and ever so much quieter. What pleased Solomon most,
+however, was this: Nobody knew about that new retreat except himself.
+
+Even if Reddy Woodpecker should succeed in finding it, he never could
+disturb Solomon by drumming upon the haystack. If Reddy tried that trick,
+his bill would merely sink noiselessly into the hay.
+
+So Solomon Owl at last had a good day's rest. And when he met Reddy
+Woodpecker just after sunset, Solomon was feeling so cheerful that he said
+"Good-evening!" quite pleasantly, before he remembered that it was Reddy
+who had teased him so often.
+
+"Good-evening!" Reddy Woodpecker replied. He seemed much surprised that
+Solomon Owl should be so agreeable. "Can you hear me?" Reddy asked him.
+
+"Perfectly!" said Solomon.
+
+"That's strange!" Reddy Woodpecker exclaimed. "I was almost sure you had
+suddenly grown deaf." And he could not understand why Solomon Owl laughed
+loud and long.
+
+"_Wha-wha! Whoo-ah!_" Solomon's deep-voiced laughter rolled and echoed
+through the woodland.
+
+But Reddy Woodpecker did not laugh at all.
+
+
+
+
+
+XXII
+IT WAS SOLOMON'S FAULT
+
+
+Reddy Woodpecker had a very good reason for not laughing when he met
+Solomon Owl. Of course, he knew nothing whatever of Solomon's new hiding
+place in the haystack. And that very morning Reddy had invited a party of
+friends to go with him to the hemlock grove where Solomon Owl had always
+lived, "to have some fun," as Reddy had explained.
+
+For a long time he had knocked and hammered and pounded at Solomon Owl's
+door. But for once Solomon's great pale face did not appear.
+
+"Where's the fun?" Reddy's friends had wanted to know, after they had
+waited until they were impatient.
+
+And Reddy Woodpecker could only shake his head and say:
+
+"I can't understand it! It's never happened like this before. I'm afraid
+Solomon Owl has lost his hearing."
+
+Reddy Woodpecker's friends were no more polite than he. And they began to
+jeer at him.
+
+"You didn't hammer loud enough," one of them told him.
+
+So he set to work again and rapped and rapped until his head felt as if it
+would fly off, and his neck began to ache.
+
+Still, Solomon Owl did not appear. And the party broke up in something
+very like a quarrel. For Reddy Woodpecker lost his temper when his friends
+teased him; and a good many unpleasant remarks passed back and forth.
+
+Somehow, Reddy felt that it was all Solomon Owl's fault, because he hadn't
+come to the door.
+
+Of course, Reddy had no means of knowing that all that time Solomon Owl
+was sleeping peacefully in Farmer Green's haystack in the meadow, a
+quarter of a mile away.
+
+It was a good joke on Reddy Woodpecker. And though no one had told Solomon
+Owl about it, he was not so stupid that he couldn't guess at least _a
+little_ that had happened.
+
+
+
+Solomon Owl continued to have a very pleasant time living in the meadow.
+Since there were many mice right close at hand, little by little he
+visited the woods less and less. And there came a time at last when he
+hardly left the meadow at all.
+
+Not flying any more than he could help, and eating too much, and sleeping
+very soundly each day, he grew stouter than ever, until his friends hardly
+knew him when they saw him.
+
+"Solomon Owl is a sight--he's so fat!" people began to say.
+
+But his size never worried Solomon Owl in the least. When he became too
+big for his doorway in the haystack, it was a simple matter to make the
+opening larger--much simpler than it would have been to make himself
+_smaller_. And that was another reason why he was delighted with his new
+home.
+
+At last, however, something happened to put an end to his lazy way of
+living. One day the sound of men's voices awakened him, when he was having
+a good nap in the haystack. And he felt his bedroom quiver as if an
+earthquake had shaken it.
+
+Scrambling to his doorway and peeping slyly out, Solomon saw a sight that
+made him very angry. A hayrack stood alongside the stack; and on it stood
+Farmer Green and his hired man. Each had a pitchfork in his hands, with
+which he tore great forkfuls of hay off the stack and piled it upon the
+wagon.
+
+Solomon Owl knew then that his fine hiding place was going to be spoiled.
+As soon as the horses had pulled the load of hay away, with Farmer Green
+and the hired man riding on top of it, Solomon Owl crept out of his snug
+bedroom and hurried off to the woods.
+
+He was so fat that it was several days before he could squeeze inside his
+old home in the hollow hemlock. And for the time being he had to sit on a
+limb and sleep in the daylight as best he could.
+
+But to his surprise, Reddy Woodpecker troubled him no more.  Reddy had
+drummed so hard on Solomon's door, in the effort to awake him when he
+wasn't there, that Aunt Polly Woodchuck told him he would ruin his bill,
+if he didn't look out. And since the warning thoroughly alarmed him, Reddy
+stopped visiting the hemlock grove.
+
+In time Solomon Owl grew to look like himself again. And people never
+really knew just what had happened to him. But they noticed that he always
+hooted angrily whenever anybody mentioned Farmer Green's name.
+
+
+
+THE END
+
+
+
+
+
+
+***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE TALE OF SOLOMON OWL***
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