Chapter 1

THE ADVENTURES OF MR. MOCKER

BY THORNTON W. BURGESS

Author of "The Adventures of Reddy Fox," "Old Mother West Wind," etc.

_With Illustrations by_ HARRISON CADY

1914

CONTENTS

I. THE LONE TRAVELER II. UNC' BILLY POSSUM GROWS EXCITED III. UNC' BILLY'S VAIN SEARCH IV. UNC' BILLY COMES HOME V. SAMMY JAY IS INDIGNANT VI. SAMMY JAY THINKS HE'S GOING CRAZY VII. SAMMY JAY SITS UP ALL NIGHT VIII. SAMMY JAY IS GLAD HE SAT UP ALL NIGHT IX. THE MYSTERY GROWS X. SAMMY JAY SEEKS ADVICE XI. HOW BLACKY THE CROW'S PLAN WORKED OUT XII. NO ONE BELIEVES PETER RABBIT XIII. STICKY-TOES THE TREE TOAD POURS OUT HIS TROUBLES XIV. PETER RABBIT MEETS UNC' BILLY POSSUM XV. PETER RABBIT AND UNC' BILLY POSSUM KEEP WATCH XVI. UNC' BILLY POSSUM DOES A LITTLE SURPRISING HIMSELF XVII. THE MEETING OF TWO OLD FRIENDS XVIII. THE MISCHIEF-MAKERS XIX. BOBBY COON MAKES A DISCOVERY XX. BOBBY COON AND OL' MISTAH BUZZARD HAVE A TALK XXI. BOBBY COON HAS A BUSY DAY XXII. UNC' BILLY POSSUM SEES MANY BACKS XXIII. UNC' BILLY POSSUM CONSULTS OL' MISTAH BUZZARD XXIV. UNC' BILLY POSSUM GIVES A PARTY XXV. UNC' BILLY POSSUM'S SURPRISE XXVI. MR. MOCKER MAKES HIMSELF AT HOME

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

"I DON'T KNOW THAT IT'S ANY OF YOUR BUSINESS!" SAID STICKY-TOES.

SUCH A THING AS UNC' BILLY FORGETTING TO SAY GOOD-BY HAD NEVER HAPPENED BEFORE

BLACKY'S EYES TWINKLED AS HE LISTENED TO SAMMY JAY'S TALE OF WOE.

"GOOD MO'NING, BRER COON," SAID OL' MISTAH BUZZARD

THERE SAT THE THREE LITTLE SCAMPS ON THE BIG ROCK

SOMETIMES HE WOKE UP IN THE NIGHT AND WOULD SING FOR VERY JOY

THE ADVENTURES OF MISTAH MOCKER

I

THE LONE TRAVELER

When Mistress Spring starts from way down South to bring joy and gladness to the Green Meadows and the Green Forest, the Laughing Brook and the Smiling Pool, a great many travelers start with her or follow her. Winsome Bluebird goes just a little way ahead of her, for Winsome is the herald of Mistress Spring. Then comes Honker the Goose, and all the world hearing his voice from way, way, up in the blue, blue sky knows that truly Mistress Spring is on her way. And with her come Little Friend the Song Sparrow, and Cheerful Robin and Mr. and Mrs. Redwing. Then follow other travelers, ever so many of them, all eager to get back to the beautiful Green Forest and Green Meadows.

Now there are a few feathered folk who think the far away South is quite good enough for them to live there all the year round. Ol' Mistah Buzzard used to think that way. Indeed, he used to think that there was no place like the dear "Ol' Souf," and it wasn't until he went looking for his old friend, Unc' Billy Possum, who had come up to live in the Green Forest, that he found out how nice it is where the Laughing Brook dances down through the Green Forest to the Smiling Pool and then through the Green Meadows to the Big River. Now, when he is sure that there is no danger that he will have cold feet or that he will catch cold in his bald head, he likes to come up to spend the summer near Unc' Billy Possum.

Of course Ol' Mistah Buzzard has wonderful stories to tell when he goes back South in the fall, and all winter long he warms his toes on the chimney tops while he tells his friends about the wonderful things he has seen in his travels. Now there is a certain friend of his, and of Unc' Billy Possum, who had listened to these stories for a long time without seeming in the least interested. But he was. Yes, Sir, he was. He was so much interested that he began to wish he could see for himself all these things Ol' Mistah Buzzard was telling about. But he didn't say a word, not a word. He just listened and listened and then went on about his business.

But when all the other little people in feathers had flown to that far away country Ol' Mistah Buzzard had told about, even Ol' Mistah Buzzard himself, then did this friend of his, and of Unc' Billy Possum, make up his mind that he would go too. He didn't say anything about it to any one, but he just started off by himself. Now of course he didn't know the way, never having been that way before, but he kept on going and going, keeping out of sight as much as he could, and asking no questions. Sometimes he wondered if he would know the Green Forest when he reached it, and then he would remember how Ol' Mistah Buzzard dearly loves to fly round and round high up in the blue, blue sky.

"All Ah done got to do is to keep on going till Ah see Brer Buzzard," thought he. So he traveled and traveled without speaking to any one, and always looking up in the blue, blue sky. Then one day he saw a black speck high up in the blue, blue sky, and it went round and round and round and round. Finally it dropped down, down, down until it disappeared among the trees.

"It's Brer Buzzard and that must be the Green Forest where Unc' Billy Possum lives," thought the lone traveler, and chuckled. "Ah reckon Ah'll give Unc' Billy a surprise. Yes, Sah, Ah reckon so."

And all the time Unc' Billy Possum and Ol' Mistah Buzzard knew nothing at all about the coming of their old friend and neighbor, but thought him far, far away down in Ol' Virginny where they had left him.

II

UNC' BILLY POSSUM GROWS EXCITED

Unc' Billy Possum sat at the foot of the great hollow tree in which his home is. Unc' Billy felt very fine that morning. He had had a good breakfast, and you know a good breakfast is one of the best things in the world to make one feel fine. Then Unc' Billy's worries were at an end, for Farmer Brown's boy no longer hunted with his dreadful gun through the Green forest or on the Green Meadows. Then, too, old Granny Fox and Reddy Fox had moved way, way off to the Old Pasture on the edge of the mountain, and so Unc' Billy felt that his eight little Possums could play about without danger.

So he sat with his back to the great hollow tree, wondering if it wouldn't be perfectly safe for him to slip up to Farmer Brown's hen-house in the dark of the next night for some fresh eggs. He could hear old Mrs. Possum cleaning house and scolding the little Possums who kept climbing up on her back. As he listened, Unc' Billy grinned and began to sing in a queer cracked voice:

"Mah ol' woman am a plain ol' dame-- 'Deed she am! 'Deed she am! Quick with her broom, with her tongue the same-- 'Deed she am! 'Deed she am! But she keeps mah house all spick and span; She has good vittles fo' her ol' man; She spanks the chillun, but she loves 'em, too; She sho' am sharp, but she's good and true-- 'Deed she am! 'Deed she am!"

"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.

Old Mrs. Possum was quite right. Unc' Billy had forgotten all about that dinner. You see he had something else on his mind. While he had been playing with his children, he had thought that he heard a voice way off in the distance, and it had sounded very, very much like the voice of an old friend from way down South in "Ol' Virginny." He had listened and listened but didn't hear it again, and yet he was sure he had heard it that once. The very thought that that old friend of his might be somewhere in the Green Forest excited Unc' Billy so that it fairly made him homesick. He just _had_ to go look for him.

So all the rest of that day Unc' Billy Possum walked and walked through the Green Forest, peering up in the tree-tops and looking into the bushes until his neck ached. But nowhere did he catch a glimpse of his old friend. The longer he looked, the more excited he grew.

"What's the matter with you?" asked Jimmy Skunk, meeting Unc' Billy on the Crooked Little Path near the top of the hill.

"Nuffin, nuffin, Sah! Ah'm just walking fo' mah health," replied Unc' Billy over his shoulder, as he hurried on. You see he didn't like to tell any one what he thought he had heard, for fear that it might not be true, and then they would laugh at him.

"Didn't suppose Unc' Billy ever worried about his health," muttered Jimmy Skunk with a puzzled look, as he watched Unc' Billy disappear.

Just as jolly, round, red Mr. Sun dropped out of sight behind the Purple Hills, Unc' Billy gave it up and turned toward home. His neck ached from looking up in the tree-tops, and his feet were sore from walking. And just then Unc' Billy for the first time thought of that dinner that old Mrs. Possum had sent him to get. Unc' Billy sat down and mopped his brow in dismay.

"Ah 'specks Ah'm in fo' it this time, sho' enough!" he said.

IV

UNC' BILLY COMES HOME

Unc' Billy Possum crept along in the darkest shadows he could find as he drew near to the great hollow tree which is his home.

"Ah 'specks Ah'm in fo' it. Ah 'specks Ah sho'ly am in fo' it this time," he kept muttering.

So Unc' Billy crept along in the black shadows until he got where he could look up and see his own doorway. Then he sat down and watched a while. All was still. There wasn't a sound in the great hollow tree.

"Perhaps mah ol' woman am out calling, and Ah can slip in and go to bed before she gets back," said Unc' Billy hopefully to himself, as he started to climb the great hollow tree.

But at the first scratch of his toe-nails on the bark the sharp face of old Mrs. Possum appeared in the doorway.

"Good evening, mah dear," said Unc' Billy, in the mildest kind of a voice.

Old Mrs. Possum said nothing, but Unc' Billy felt as if her sharp black eyes were looking right through him.

Unc' Billy grinned a sickly kind of grin as he said:

"Ah hopes yo'alls are feeling good tonight."

"Where's that dinner Ah sent yo' fo'?" demanded old Mrs. Possum sharply.

Unc' Billy fidgeted uneasily. "Ah done brought yo' two eggs from Farmer Brown's hen-house," he replied meekly.

"Two eggs! Two eggs! How do yo' think Ah am going to feed eight hungry mouths on two eggs?" snapped old Mrs. Possum.

Unc' Billy hung his head. He hadn't a word to say. He just couldn't tell her that he had spent the whole day tramping through the Green Forest looking for an old friend, whose voice he had thought he heard, when he ought to have been helping her find a dinner for the eight little Possums. No, Sir, Unc' Billy hadn't a word to say.

My, my, my, how old Mrs. Possum did scold, as she came down the great hollow tree to get the two eggs. Unc' Billy knew that he deserved every bit of it. He felt very miserable, and he was too tired to have a bit of spirit left. So he just sat at the foot of the great hollow tree and said nothing, while old Mrs. Possum bit a hole in the end of one egg and began to suck it. All the time she was looking at Unc' Billy with those sharp eyes of hers. When she had finished the egg, she pushed the other over to him.

"Yo' eat that!" she said shortly. "Yo' look as if yo' hadn't had anything to eat to-day" (which was true). "Then yo' hustle up to bed; it's all ready fo' yo'."

Unc' Billy did as he was bid, and as he tucked himself into his snug, warm bed he murmured sleepily:

"Ol' Mrs. Possum has a sharp, sharp tongue, But her bark is worse than her bite. For Ol' Mrs. Possum has a soft, soft heart Though she hides it way out of sight."

V

SAMMY JAY IS INDIGNANT

Sammy Jay was indignant. Yes, Sir, Sammy Jay was very much put out. In fact, Sammy was just plain downright mad! It is bad enough to be found out and blamed for the things you really do, but to be blamed for things that you don't do and don't even know anything about is more than even Mr. Jaybird can stand. It had begun when he met Jimmy Skunk early in the morning.

"Hello, Sammy Jay! What were you doing up so late last night?" said Jimmy Skunk.

"I wasn't up late; I went to bed at my usual hour, just after Mr. Sun went to bed behind the Purple Hills," replied Sammy Jay.

"Oh, come, Sammy Jay, be honest for once in your life! It was a long, long, long time after Mr. Sun went to bed that I heard you screaming and making a great fuss over in the Green Forest. What was it all about?"

Sammy Jay stamped one foot. He was beginning to lose his temper. You know he loses it very easily. "I am honest!" he screamed. "I tell you I went to bed just as I always do, and I didn't wake up until this morning."

"Then you must talk something dreadful in your sleep," said Jimmy Skunk, turning his back on Sammy Jay, who was so mad by this time that for a few minutes he couldn't find his tongue. When he did, he flew off screaming at the top of his lungs. He was still screaming when he flew over the Old Briar-patch where Peter Rabbit was just beginning to doze off.

Peter was sleepy. He didn't like to have his morning nap disturbed.

"Hi, Sammy Jay! Didn't you make racket enough last night to give honest folks a little peace and quiet to-day?" shouted Peter Rabbit.

Sammy Jay flew up into a young cherry tree on the edge of the Old Briar-patch, and his eyes were fairly red with anger as he glared down at Peter Rabbit.

"What's the joke, Peter Rabbit? That's the second time this morning that I've been told that I was screaming last night, when all the time I was fast asleep," said Sammy Jay.

"Then it's a funny way you have of sleeping," replied Peter Rabbit. "Come, Sammy, be honest and tell me what you were yelling 'thief' for, over in the Green Forest?"

"Peter Rabbit, you and Jimmy Skunk are crazy, just as crazy as loons!" sputtered Sammy Jay. "I tell you I was asleep, and I guess I ought to know!"

"And I guess I know your voice when I hear it!" replied Peter Rabbit. "It's bad enough in daytime, but if I was you, I'd quit yelling in the night. Some one of these times Hooty the Owl will hear you, and that will be the end of you and your noise. Now go away; I want to sleep."

Sammy went. He was mad clear through, and yet he didn't know what to make of it. Were they just trying to make him mad, or had he really been screaming in his sleep? He flew over to the Smiling Pool. Jerry Muskrat looked up and saw him.

"What were you yelling about in the night, Sammy Jay?" asked Jerry.

This was too much. Sammy Jay let his wings and his tail droop dejectedly and hung his head.

"I don't know. I really don't know anything about it," he said.

VI

SAMMY JAY THINKS HE'S GOING CRAZY

"Sammy Jay screams all day long, And now what do you think? Why, Sammy sits and yells all night And doesn't sleep a wink!"

Everywhere he went Sammy Jay heard that shouted after him. Dozens and dozens of times a day he heard it. At first he lost his temper and was the very maddest Jaybird ever seen on the Green Meadows or in the Green Forest.

"It isn't true! It isn't true! It isn't true!" he would scream at the top of his lungs.

And then everybody within hearing would shout: "It _is_ true!"

Sammy would just dance up and down and scream and scream and scream, he was so angry. And then he was sure to hear some one pipe up:

"Sammy's mad and we are glad, And we know how to tease him! But some dark night he'll get a fright, For Hooty'll come and seize him!"

That really began to worry him. At first he had thought that it was all a joke on the part of the little people of the Green Forest and the Green Meadows, and that they had made up the story about hearing him in the night. Then he began to think that it might be true that he did talk in his sleep, and this worried him a whole lot. If he did that, Hooty the Owl would surely find him sooner or later, and in the morning there wouldn't be anything left of him but a few feathers from his fine coat.

The more he thought about it, the more worried Sammy Jay became. He lost his appetite and began to grow thin. He kept out of sight whenever possible and no longer screamed "Thief! thief!" through the Green Forest. In fact his voice was rarely heard during the day. But it seemed that he must be talking just as much as ever in the night. At least everybody said that he was. Worse still, different ones said that they heard him in different places in the Green Forest and even down on the Green Meadows. Could it be that he was flying about as well as talking in his sleep? And nobody believed him when he said that he was asleep all night. They thought that he was awake and doing it purposely. They might have known that he couldn't see in the night, for his eyes are made for daylight and not for darkness, like the eyes of Boomer the Nighthawk and Hooty the Owl. But they didn't seem to think of this, and insisted that almost every night they heard him down in the alders along the Laughing Brook. Yet every morning when he awoke, Sammy would find himself just where he went to sleep the night before, safely hidden in the thickest part of a big pine-tree.

"If they are not all crazy, then I must be," said. Sammy Jay to himself, as he turned away from the breakfast which he could not eat. Then he had a happy idea. "Why didn't I think of it before? I'll sleep all day, and then I'll keep awake all night and see what happens then!" he exclaimed.

So Sammy Jay hurried away to the darkest part of the Green Forest and tried to sleep through the day.

VII

SAMMY JAY SITS UP ALL NIGHT

Sammy Jay sat in the dark and shivered. Sammy was lonely, more lonely than he had ever supposed anybody could be. And to tell the truth Sammy Jay was scared. Yes, Sir, that was just the way Sammy Jay felt--scared. Every time a leaf rustled, Sammy jumped almost out of his skin. His heart went pit-a-pat, pit-a-pat, pit-a-pat. He could hear it himself, or at least he thought he could, and it seemed to him that if Hooty the Owl should happen to come along, he would surely hear it.

You see it was the first time in all his life that Sammy Jay had not gone to sleep just as soon as jolly, round, red Mr. Sun had pulled his rosy night-cap on and gone to bed behind the Purple Hills. But to-night Sammy sat in the darkest, thickest part of a big pine-tree and kept blinking his eyes to keep from going to sleep. He had made up his mind that he wouldn't go to sleep at all that night, no matter how lonely and frightened he might be. He just would keep his eyes and his ears wide open.

What was he doing it for? Why, because all the little meadow and forest people insisted that every night lately Sammy Jay had spent a great part of his time screaming in the harsh, unpleasant way he does during the day, and some of them were very cross, because they said that he waked them up when they wanted to sleep. Now Sammy knew better. He never in his life had screamed in the night unless--well, unless he did it in his sleep and didn't know it. So he had made up his mind to keep awake all of this night and see if in the morning any one would say that he had waked them up.

He had watched the black shadows creep through the Green Forest and grow blacker and blacker. The blacker they grew, the lonesomer he became. By and by it was so dark that he couldn't see anything at all, and every little noise made him shiver. It is easy to be brave in daylight, but in the dark, when you cannot see a thing, every little sound seems twice as loud as it really is and gives you such a creepy, creepy feeling. Sammy Jay had it now. He felt so creepy that it seemed as if he would crawl right out of his skin. He kept saying over and over to himself: "There's nothing to be afraid of. There's nothing to be afraid of. I'm just as safe as if I was fast asleep." But still he shivered and shook.

By and by, looking up through the top of the big pine-tree, he saw the little stars come out one by one. They seemed to be looking right down at him and winking at him in the jolliest way. Somehow, he didn't feel quite so lonely then, and he tried to wink back. Then little, soft, silvery bars of light began to creep through the branches of the trees and along the ground. They were moonbeams, and Sammy could see just a little, a very little. He began to feel better.

"Whooo-hoo-hoo, whooo-hoo!"

It was a terrible sound, fierce and hungry. Sammy Jay nearly fell from his perch. He opened his mouth to scream with fright. Then he remembered just in time and closed it without a sound. It was the hunting-cry of Hooty the Owl. Sammy Jay sat huddled in a little, forlorn, shivering heap, while twice more that fierce cry rang through the Green Forest. Then a shadow floated over the big pine-tree. Hooty the Owl had flown away without seeing him, and Sammy breathed easier.

VIII

SAMMY JAY IS GLAD HE SAT UP ALL NIGHT

Sammy Jay was having no trouble in keeping awake now. Not a bit! He couldn't have gone to sleep if he wanted to--not since Hooty the Owl had frightened him almost out of his skin with his fierce, hungry hunting-call. He was too frightened and shivery and creepy to sleep. But he didn't want to, anyway.

So he sat in the thickest part of the big pine-tree, shivering and creepy and miserable. He heard Bobby Coon go down the Lone Little Path on his way to Fanner Brown's cornfield, where the corn was just beginning to get milky and sweet. Out in a patch of bright moonlight he saw Peter Rabbit jumping and dancing and having the greatest kind of a time all by himself. Pretty soon Peter was joined by his cousin, Jumper the Hare. Such antics as they did cut up! Sammy Jay almost laughed aloud as he watched. It was less lonely with them there, and he did want to call to them dreadfully. But that would never, never do, for no one must know that he was sitting up awake all night.